Jack's Place

My dear friend Sue is leaving Boston soon. In all her Boston years, she'd never been to the JFK Presidential Library and Museum, so we decided to go as a little goodbye to her.

Pat, Me, Sue, Mollie

Some of my favorite displays were actually about Jackie. Look at the adorable cartoons she drew in her scrapbook.

Here is one of her dresses. I love her classic, elegant style.

This is Rhonda and me in front of a piece of the Berlin wall.

You know, even though I'm not a Democrat, I think that JFK was truly inspiring. But let's face it, he would probably be the most conservative Democrat in Washington right now. He did so much in such a short time that he was President, from the Space Program to the Peace Corps. I think this quote sums up well.

Elephant Walk

My company decided that since the holiday season is so busy, our annual holiday party is held in January after all the rush is over. This year, we went to the Elephant Walk on Beacon Street. They serve an interesting combination of Cambodian and French food and have adorable elephant decorations everywhere.

It's nice to have social time away from work and always good to see the wives and significant others.

The food was terrific, but dessert is always the best part. Love the little elephant cookie. :)

Socialism

My sister referred me to a survey panel a couple of years ago. The gist of it is, you get points for surveys that you take, then trade them in for great rewards... like the nano ipod Jess got for her son. (If anyone wants in on it, let me know and I can send you a referral e-mail.) As part of this panel, occasionally they'll send me products to try for a month and then tell them what I thought. I've done a facial moisturizer and this week I received a shower cream. This is the packaging it came in:
When I opened the box at work, Mike saw it and it bothered him a little. He likes to play devil's advocate in our mostly politically conservative office, and will often tout more liberal points of view. After seeing this non-descript, homogenous packaging, though, he changed his mind. He told me that if he ever started saying socialism or communism was a good idea, all I had to do was pull out this shower cream and he would concede. Can you imagine if all the products on a shelf at the grocery store looked like this? Or if there were only one product to choose from in the first place? No thank you!

Presidential Failure

When we heard that President Obama was coming to Boston for a rally for Martha Coakley, my roommates and I decided to try to see him after church... we tried to be inconspicuous, since we're really Republicans. ;) On the other side of the street were rallyers for Scott Brown.We got off the train at North Eastern and saw the beginning of the line, then after half a block, how it snaked around this plaza...... then down this block......then around the corner, down one side of this street and back around the other side......and a little bit around the corner again, where we were finally able to get at the end of the line. Needless to say, we didn't get in to see Obama, although we may have seen his limo drive by. ;)It was a little too cold to be standing out there too long in nylons and heels anyway.

Chopped

I had a Groupon at a fancy salon in the Back Bay, so I decided to go with a short style again. This was the cut I loved that my hairstylist in Utah, Melissa, gave me five years ago. (If she were still cutting hair, I would schedule appointments with her whenever I was home... but alas, I have had to do without her amazing skills since she moved to California at the same time I left for Boston.)

This is how it turned out. So fun and sassy. I know I'm going to miss ponytails though.

Welcome 2010

When I got back to Boston from my Christmas trip, all of my roommates were still gone. So I was home... alone... all by myself. So I spent much more time in my pajamas watching tv, 'cause at least then I could hear people talking. After the second day, I tried calling some friends who live nearby... but they were also still out of town. On the fourth day, it was New Year's Eve, so I tried reaching out to even more friends, but by 7 p.m. still hadn't found anyone in town where I could tag along. I resigned myself to ringing in the New Year alone, maybe even already sleeping... which I haven't done since I was little. Just about then, I got a call from Daryl, who had not been planning on celebrating New Year's Eve, but he and his roommate were willing to go to a movie. Aren't they sweet? We decided on The Princess and the Frog at Boston Commons. I got there a little early and walked around the park a bit. I had been feeling tired of the city... the hassle of parking, the terrible winter weather, not having any friends... It's funny, though, because every time I actually go into the city (working on the South Shore affords me little city time), I fall in love with it allover again.

People were walking all around for First Night Boston. Some were a little tipsy, but everyone seemed happy and excited. I could feel the energy in the air and it made me smile to just be walking through the park, listening to the live band playing at the grandstand. It was a good New Year's Eve.

I do have to show you the sorry Christmas lights in Boston:

They don't hold a candle to Temple Square!

Home for Christmas

My first Christmas in Boston, two of my friends had flight trouble and were not able to get home for Christmas day. Since then, I realized what a pain winter flying in New England is. It is unusual to have a flight without delays, but this year something even worse happened. My flight was cancelled! The one day it stormed that week was the one day that I was supposed to fly out. Of course, they started cancelling flights the day before when it hadn't even started snowing yet. Typical. Luckily my roommate Tristan noticed they were cancelling flights and let me know. I called and was able to get on another flight the next day. BUT, I was supposed to get there early Sunday morning and instead got there late Monday night, so I really lost two whole days at home. On the bright side, though, I was in plenty of time for Christmas. We did, however, have to reschedule our family party from Sunday to Wednesday, which my sister was personally upset with me over the whole week. Like I purposefully bought a ticket for a flight (in July!) that would be cancelled.

Good times were had once I was home, although I had to try and cram in a lot more in less time. I had a fun little get together with some old Alpha friends.
Jessica's family has three birthday's the week of Christmas. We celebrated Kevin's on Christmas Eve. My mom and abuela also made the traditional Bolivian New Year's soup. So yummy! The kids opened their one gift, which was pajamas, of course.

Christmas morning, my parents and I opened our presents... ...with Patrick, Hilary, and......their little man Ganon. It was his first Christmas and he was still learning the ropes of unwrapping things, but was so excited for all his gifts. I coudn't believe how big he'd gotten!We also saw Jessica's kids and went to see Jodie's girls. We found out that my grandma Turner was going to be alone on Christmas, so Kevin and the boys made an early run that morning to pick her up. It was really good to see her... it had been since before I moved to Boston.

The next day we celebrated Julian's birthday with his party. That little guy is so adorable. Somehow I manage not to take too many pictures when I'm home. The time just seems to fly by and I never get to see everyone that I want to. It was a merry Christmas, though, all the same.

Christmas Goodies

We get all sorts of deliciousness in the office at Christmas time. I just had to share a couple... this came from our COO who lives in Florida. Delicious Florida oranges and grapefruit creatively arranged in a Christmas tree.

This gingerbread house is from our neighbors in the building. Ginger Betty's is a client of theirs and I have never tasted such delicious cookies... their soft ginger snaps drizzled with chocolate. Mmm. Bethany went to their shop and said it is adorable. If you're not in the Boston area, you should order some. Really.

Birthday Tricks

I appreciate my office mate making me laugh. He was trying to catch this orange in his mouth and luckily let me capture this. :)

We let him pretend that he was victorious, you know, since it was his birthday and all. Hope it was a great one!

New York, New York

To round out Mollie's birthday week, we took a little day trip to the Big Apple. I was so excited to see the Christmas displays on Fifth Avenue. My favorites were the Bergdorf Goodman windows.This one was amazing... everything was suspended at 90 degrees, and the king is even pouring tea!

This one reminded me of high school art class when we drew those wooden bodies.

A trip to New York is not complete without seeing a Broadway play. I found out Bye Bye Birdie was showing from a fun blog I read, (No) Sex and the City. I loved the movie with Dick Van Dyke when I was young and was excited to see Natalie in it. Luckily I was able to find some great tickets. The show was amazing! So much fun and a great cast. Kim's little brother was especially hilarious.


The next thing we set out to do was ice skating at Rockefeller Center, something Mollie has always wanted to do. At this point I should mention that it was raining that day... all day long... and it was cold... winter cold. We were sharing an umbrella, but the wind was not helping us stay dry. We headed over there anyway, and waited in line to be let into the rink. Have you ever been completely soaked and freezing cold? Well, staring at the big slab of ice and watching people fall down and come up even wetter did not make us too excited to skate on it. After much debate, we finally realized we would be miserable in ice skates and decided to come back some other year for ice skating. We did see several proposals under the giant Christmas tree though.
We also decided to skip the delicious cheesecake we were going to get and headed back to the car to get out of our wet clothes as much as possible. Mollie was a trooper and drove us home through a blizzard, getting us home safe and sound. Definitely a fun and memorable birthday adventure.