Christmas in New York

James and I returned to New York for the Christmas holiday on December 17th and spent ten days visiting with friends and family. We hadn't been home since May so we were pretty anxious to return and see everyone! Our first night home we ventured out to Huntington with my best friend Lisa, my brother and Jamie's cousins. We visited some of our favorite places including Honu and Little Vincent's. In the morning we went to a local bar and painfully watched the Packers suffer their only regular season loss. The pain was numbed however, by the company of good friends.

We spent the remainder of the pre Christmas week spending as much time with friends and family as possible. On Monday night we took my cousins Ashley and Jessi to look at Christmas lights, we ran into a small glitch (the place where we went was closed) but still had a great time.  On Tuesday our good friends planned a dinner for us so we could all catch up and celebrate the engagement of Jen and Robbie (which we are super excited about!!!!). Another afternoon we spent with Jamie's brother Dan, sister in law Tara, niece Bella and nephew Danny at Bella's class Christmas party. The kids were really excited to show us where they went to school and meet some of their friends.

The Christmas weekend approached quickly and brought many traditions for the Earlys and Irvings. On Friday the 23rd the Earlys celebrated Christmas together. Jamie has two older brothers who are married and have some pretty cute kiddies so we all got together. Here are a few pictures from the night

Brothers and their Blondes:)

Jason, Olivia, Bella, CJ and Danny

I had to sneak out of the Christmas festivities a little early to meet my family for dinner. We have started a pre Christmas family tradition and all meet for dinner at Samurai Hibachi in Huntington. The night was filled with volcano bowls, sake bombs and lots of laughs with our family.  Saturday is when the real fun began though. Since before I was born my Mom's side of the family has gathered on Christmas Eve for a party, the most memorable staple is the Champagne Punch. It was first hosted by my Grammy at her house and has since been passed down to my Mom (and me) and is now a night full of appetizers, champagne punch and Christmas carols!  We try and get creative with the appetizers we serve, some favorites include fried macaroni and cheese, the mashed potato bar, Christmas tree little hot dogs and of course bagel bites. The morning of Christmas Eve I came down with a cold which slowed me down a bit but I still think that everyone had a wonderful time! Here are some pictures below of a few of the appetizers we served. 

The Infamous Champagne Punch

Snowman Cheese Ball

Christmas Tree Little Hot Dogs

Mashed Potato and Toppings Bar

Bandit in his Christmas outfit, he was not happy 

( if you couldn't tell by the look he is giving me)

On Christmas morning I went with Jamie and his parents to his brother Dave and sister in law Jenn's house to have breakfast and watch Livi, Jason and CJ open presents. It was fun to see how excited they were to open their gifts! In the afternoon Jamie and I went to my Aunt Helen's house for Christmas Day dinner. We had a great time and dinner was excellent, as always! Afterwards we went back to Jamie's to celebrate with his parents and to watch the Packer game. Monday morning brought one last family tradition-the Pancake Cottage. Every year for as long as any of us can remember we spend the morning after Christmas at the Pancake Cottage in Greenlawn. We almost always sit at the same two tables and we rarely change what we order. After breakfast a few last family members stopped by our house to spend my last  few hours in New York with me and celebrate Christmas once again! Around 7pm that night Jamie and I headed to the airport to return to Tampa. We had such an amazing trip and it was nice to see so many of our friends and family. Although we didn't get to see everyone, my cold really slowed us down at the end, we will be back at the end of April for 5 days so hopefully we will get to see everyone then:)