Harlem Lovebirds: Love Birds' Christmas 2012 (and Why My Daughter Thinks Santa is Her Grandfather)

It's been refreshing to sit back and take a week off from blogging between Christmas and New Years. I originally hadn't planned it (I had scheduled posts ready to go), but decided to save them for later and be more of an observer in the blogosphere and spend more time with my family. I loved every bit of it!

This has to be my favorite picture from Christmas! I love acting silly with my sisters!

Here's what we were up to here in NYC . . .

About Santa . . . I took my mom's advice and told Nia Santa was a good man - a saint who was nice to children. I gave her plenty of prep before heading to Santaland and she was a good sport waiting on line for over an hour (taking her to lunch and the bathroom beforehand helped immensely, plus there were little girls in line in front of us that she played with). Once we got up to the elves right before Santa I asked for "the special Santa" as I did last year and lo and behold we were taken to the chocolate Santa. Nia proceeded with caution and refused to speak the entire time. It was kind of funny actually! She was very solemn. When we were done she gladly took the "I visited Santa" pin the elf gave her and declared Santa her "granfahder!" I laughed so hard and figured this was because he was chocolate and had gray hair like my father. Too cute! Throughout Christmas and after she would say, "Santa is a good man; he's my granfahder!"

Next up, we went to Maryland . . .

We had a double date with my brother and sister-in-laws at Grillfire - I loved the decor and food!

Of course she had to spend time with her Uncle Tanner


Cutting up in the midst of Rummy 500

Pre-church selfie! She was mesmerized by the dancers at church

Christmas Eve we enjoyed brunch with my sisters and our good friends Veronica and Tudor at Miss Shirley's

My parents gave Nia this bear on Christmas Eve which read aloud Twas the Night Before Christmas

She insisted on wearing her Christmas church dress to open presents - she still asks to wear it daily!

My lovely sisters received matching robes

My sister Lauren, a graphic designer, gave my parents one of her stunning pieces

We had my dad's traditional candy cane pastry braid filled with apricots and cherries, sausage and egg casserole, smoked salmon and hash browns

Of course the itis set in so we took a nap before eating dinner then the movies . . .

We snapped a quick pic before heading to the movies; we missed my brother this year

With Christmas falling on Tuesday and Mr. Love Bird taking off the Friday before it seemed like a very long, leisurely break. We saw Les Miserables as a family Christmas day and Lil Love Bird loved the singing and was kept quiet with marshmallows and chocolate chips! The day after Christmas we were met with snow on our way back to NYC that quickly turned to rain just as I was having deja vu visions of Christmas 2010 when our bus got in an accident on the way home in the snowstorm and took nearly 6 hours to get home.