Since we were planning to go to Western NY to be with my family for Christmas Day, we had our own little family Christmas celebration on December 24th. Matt's family always had orange rolls on Christmas morning, but since I couldn't find any in the stores near us, I made some improvising on my cinnamon roll recipe. Grandma Cope made matching aprons for me & Lexi, and Lexi insisted that we put them on as soon as she saw them. It was perfect timing since we had some baking to do! 
This is the other station we use on occasion. Today, the strike officially ended, but it will take up to 18 hours to get everything running again. And most of the employees are having a hard time getting to work, since there are no trains or busses! Ironic?
Daddy got to take some of his students on a reward field trip to Lasker Rink in Central Park for a day of ice skating. Mom & Lexi came along. This was Lexi's first time ice skating and she loved it! At first she had a very hard time balancing herself and relied on mom and some of dad's students to pull her around. But by the end of the day, she was standing on the ice and even taking a few steps, although not quite gliding yet. When we took a break to sit down for awhile, she escaped from mommy's arms and walked on her little skates all the way over to the edge of the rink and attempted to get back on the ice. She is an adventurous & brave little girl. Lately, she has wanted her hat pulled almost over her eyes... here we are at the rink.
. Lexi has just loved playing with it. The day after she got it, we set up a little table with a tablecloth for her to have her tea party. She was content to play with it pretty much all day! At one point, she did get a little upset (maybe because mommy was tired of playing tea party) and threw the table over, breaking one of the saucers. We had to put the rest of the dishes away for a few days. Fortunately, it was a very clean break and will be easy to repair, which we won't actually do for now so she can learn that "it's broken." This is Lexi & Aunt Lolo having some tea.
Lots of fun things to do in New York at Christmastime. On Saturday we took Lexi to the Citicorp Center (Citibank's headquarters in Manhattan- it's that building in the skyline with the slanted roof) where they have a detailed train set up for the holidays. Here we are watching the little trains go by. Lexi was totally enthralled by the trains. If there was a moment when there were no trains running by our spot, she would say "More, more!"
Elmo is Lexi's favorite character from Sesame Street, which she faithfully watches every morning. Grandma Susan picked up this Giant Elmo that is just about the same size as Lexi.
Lexi has recently delved into the exciting world of Mommy & Daddy shoes! Here she is in Daddy's recently shined dress shoes.
This year we attended the Inwood 1st Ward Halloween Party on Saturday, October 29. We dressed Lexi as a black cat since we couldn't justify purchasing a costume for an hour's worth of wearing. She wore cat ears I had purchased a few years ago and let me paint her nose & whiskers with some eyeliner. Although she loved admiring herself in the mirror, she had wiped it off by the time we arrived at the church. Her favorite acitivity by far was the art table where she decorated many a pumpkin, bat & witch hat to be hung on a string for decoration. Here she is with Desmond Jones, a well-dressed race car driver, complete with dirt smudges on his face.
At the party, the kids went around the halls to all the classrooms to do some Trick-or-Treating. This was a new and most wonderful concept to Lexi. Candy! We gave her a little bag to carry her candy in, but she refused to put her goodies in. She insisted on carrying ALL her acquisitions in her little hands. We just had to get it on film.
One of Lexi and Mom's favorite outings is to the Carousel in Central Park. This from the Park's website: "Central Park's first carousel was built in 1870 and, according to Park lore, was turned by a blind mule and a horse. . . . Crafted by the Brooklyn firm of Stein and Goldstein in 1908, the Carousel is one of the largest in the United States, with 58 hand-carved, painted horses. Stein and Goldstein were among the foremost carvers of their day and the horses – nearly life-size in the outer ring – are caught rearing or mid-stride with almost fierce reality." This time around, Lexi didn't want me even touching her and requested that I sit on my own horse next to her. This is one of the best smile pictures we have of her.
