deck the halls

tonight we put up the christmas tree. it didn't take nearly as long as I expected it to, it would seem we have it down to a science by now. we put in a movie and finished the second half while eating yummy pizza.

chris and i agreed to get a new tree topper this year, so you'll see that the top is bare. we've been using a santa hat in the past, something chris had started years ago, but it will be nice to buy a new one together.

the big city

After Doylestown, Chris, me, my parents, Nicole and her boyfriend all drove to New York City, where Chris and I stayed at Nicole's apartment and the rest of them stayed at her boyfriend's apartment in Jersey.

On Sunday we walked around the city, saw 'Mamma Mia!' on Broadway (my first broadway show!), ate dinner at ESPN Zone, saw the giant tree at Rockefeller Center, and went to a Knicks game. It was a long day but so much fun! I can't believe we did so much in just so many hours.

On Monday we did more sight-seeing and ended up at Macy's (10 floors!), Tiffany's (no purchases), and the NBA store.

Chris and I boarded an Amtrak train around 4 p.m. to head back to Erie. (My parents went on to visit more relatives in D.C.) The photo of Chris sitting at a table is from the train. We slept, ate dinner, and hung out in the lounge car for a while. We got into Erie a few hours late due to some unexpected stops, so we got home around 4 a.m. We've always talked about taking a train to the city, so it is nice to have had the experience.

It was quite a weekend!

Siblings

Chris and I tagged along with my parents to Doylestown, PA, to hear my brother sing in a barbershop quartet this past Saturday. We met up with my sister and her boyfriend and my brother and his fiance for dinner before the show. This is my younger sister, Nicole, and my older brother, Peter. She lives in New York City and he lives in Virginia.

Thanksgiving

This is just a pic of Chris and I out over Thanksgiving weekend. One of my best friends who lives in Erie and another who was visiting from out of town with her husband all came out for drinks and good times.

'Emu Dreaming'

We recently visited the Erie Art Museum, and their current exhibition is "Earth & Spirit: Contemporary Indigenous Art from Australia and New Zealand". Dot painting is the traditional visual art form of the Aborigines in Western Australia Central Desert. The canvas is covered in small dots of paint which create patterns and symbols.

The "Dreamtime" for Aboriginal people is the time which the earth received its present form and in which the patterns and cycles of life begun. The emu is the law keeper and protector of the law. This law if from the Dreamtime and cannot be changed unless the ancestors intervene.

There are gold emu tracks running from the bottom to the top of the painting. This was Chris's favorite.

Rocket Thomas

In this picture it would seem that Rocket was standing still like a good model birdy, but I was really shuffling back and forth with him as he wandered along the back of the couch. The chair in the background is a combination of an old chair they were getting rid of at work, a new chair cushion, and some brightly striped material I bought at a garage sale for $3. I love having the color in the room.