Big = Better?: A New Yorkers Christmas!

Whooooohoooo! Was our reaction to the amazing generosity bestowed on us by Aaron's cousins in New York who decided we couldn't spend Christmas alone and gave us tickets to NYC to spend Christmas with them. This was just what I needed, poor Aaron has been dealing with sad Erin who has been homesick and wishing on a daily basis that we were back in Australia. So a trip to look forward too and some friendly, familiar faces to spend Christmas with was very exciting.

Matching Christmas sweaters, not something we would normally
wear on a warm Chrissy day in Aus, but very popular here..

We exchanged presents before we left and it was lovely to have some gifts from home to unwrap, we were very grateful (and the Cadbury chocolate lasted less than a week, thanks mum)! More on our Christmas following the Big Report

Big Report.
As the history books show us there are important dates and times. For example 1770, Captain Cook hits the shores of Australia, 1861 American Civil War, and 1941 the Japanese Attack Pearl Harbor. For those of you who are history buffs, you would notice I left out the most important date and probably the most significant event of 1941, if not the 20th Century. This dates signifies the creation of a childhood dream. One that was given as a reward or to put a smile on your face no matter how bad the grazed knee was. One that was creamy on the inside and crunchy on the out. Yes it was the creation of the forever desired and eternally delicious M&M. From these humble beginnings as treats for GI's in WWII, to the creation of Red and Yellow in 1960 and the gradual addition of other colours to the family, this delicious, melt in your mouth chocolate has become world famous. With Red and Yellow reaching cult status, the American's have taken the love of these characters and their creamy centres to a whole new extravagant level.
Have you ever dreamed of 3 floors of M&M's, every possible colour, your nations pride displayed in M&M's and the ability to fully furnish your house with M&M branded products. NYC can make your dream a reality, WOW!

The Weeks Past
We spent an action packed three days seeing the sights of NYC and soaking up the holiday spirit. We flew in and headed to the family pad in Queens. The afternoon we checked out Central Park as Aaron had a burning desire to strap on the skates and hit the ice. The air was bitterly cold, but the atmosphere was awesome, the line for the ice skating however was not. So to avoid turning into an ice cube we passed on the skating and went to check out the Christmas markets in the park, before walking through the city to Fao Schwartz. Here we went inside to check out one of the most famous toy shops in the world, Ezzy was in heaven. She looked like Charlie taking a ride in the great glass elevator. After dragging her out by the scruff of her collar as she wanted to buy the entire shop, next on our agenda was the window displays at Saks 5th Avenue. Unfortunately this year the displays were not that festive, but it was nice to walk through the shop, ahhh heating. Next we headed to the pinnacle of Christmas displays...The Rockerfella Centre! The tree was spectacular...and those damn tourists were packed in like sardines in a can! So many people bustling through to sneak a peak at the tree and some, well thousands hitting the ice! After snapping a few picks and soaking up the Christmas joy it was time to feed the hungry beast! So where do you go when you are with a bunch of Irish Italians? An Irish bar, Irish Murphys of course.... With our stomachs full, lips wet and feeling warm again we stepped back out into the hustle of Time Square, and then strolled back towards the carpark before heading home.

After a solid sleep, some NY bagels for breakfast we were off again with our ever enthusiastic and knowledgeable tour guide, who I have to say would of been lost without our devoted and incredibly competent male navigator, who shall not be named due to his modesty! Today we explored the wharf area which was still trashed after the storms. Caught a glimpse of the Statue of Liberty, and got up close with the "Stock exchange bull", somehow last year when I visited NYC the bull had alluded Sal and I, but this time, with the help of Aaron (surprisingly enough he can find his way around) we found the bull! Now most people take the bull by the horns, others take them by the balls! By this time we were pretty, freezing so re-hydrated and warmed up with a hot chocolate before setting off for the next landmark, the 9/11 Memorial. Unfortunately the line to buy tickets was extremely long, instead we walked past the site to the new Freedom Tower! This is one mammoth structure, and is nearly finished. I remember Sal telling me last year when I visited that the workers didn't come down at lunch time because it took half an hour to get down and up alone, so someones job is to get all the lunches from the many food places around the site. Lunch was next on the agenda, and a trip to Little Italy for some New York Slice was in order! Some peoples lives revolve around food, Aaron being one of those people. Again we were treated to a delicious meal on Christmas Eve cooked by Theresa. To help us feel like being at home Theresa made a special trip out and brought us a leg of lamb, mmmmm delicious!

Christmas Day was a blast! It was lovely to wake up and be surrounded by family, the sounds of rustling paper and laughter. The morning went by quickly with chatter, delicious food, some single malt Scottish Whiskey for Aaron and Sal, and Theresa preparing the food for lunch. This makes us look lazy and for Aaron it looks even worse. The fact is we hated not helping, but Theresa would block us with a flying hip, any time we tried to help.

Turducken, what a treat!

As lunch got closer things got exciting with anticipation of meeting more relatives of some description and Erin learning how to fold Manicotti. Our only hesitation was if we could fit any more food in after over indulging on cheeses. With the desire to be hospitable, we stretched a little and made room for lunch which was a feast! Turducken, Manicotti, Vege's and more. Unfortunately Aaron had to work the next day so we packed our bags over the afternoon and headed to the airport in the evening for a long trip back to Dallas.

Rolling like a pro, embracing the Itallian, yummo mannicotti

Now we went to NY with the hope of getting a white Christmas, little did we know that it was going to dump down with snow in hot sunny Dallas, and they say "climate change" is a myth. After waiting an hour for the shuttle to get back to our car in the freezing cold, we literally skated through the icy carpark and found our snow white car with the doors frozen over to the point I could not open them. Luckily I was given some gloves for Christmas so I bashed and cracked the ice around the door, let Erin in and put the heater on to keep her warm, whilst I acted like a man and scrapped the snow and ice of the windscreen, what a MAN! We got home about 2am definitely ready for sleep.

It takes a Man to crack through that!

Shake It!

How Cowboys Role

Mirrored Saddle

Since NY we have been lying low with Aaron working nights and weekends in the retail world and trying to save some money. Aaron worked NYE and NYD so when he finally made it home at 9pm NYE we had dinner, a bottle of bubbles and watched the ball drop in NY at 11pm our time, before retiring for the evening. We are getting older! Since then we haven't been totally boring. We went Texas Two Stepping with some people Aaron made friends with. This was an experience! Imagine a big barn with hundreds of authentic cow boys and girls, a mirrored saddle disco ball, a country music band, busty blonde barmaids and a dance floor that was set up like a race track with crowds going around in circles "step together, step together, through, through"! The most fascinating thing, it particularly grabbed Aaron's attention was for about a 15min block the music changed from country to main stream and all the barmaids got up on their bars, turned their butts towards the crowds, put their hands on the wall and worked it for the entire time. A once in a lifetime experience!!

Thats's an update on where we are up too now. The only other news is Aaron got himself a new job. He has gone back to the world of teaching and is working for a NFP called Uplift Education. It is an organisation who works with disadvantaged youth with the aim of breaking poverty cycles, getting them into uni and improving their life chances. I got a little lucky here as the school I am working at is North Hills Prep, the first uplift school which is now considered one of the top state schools in the USA and had 100% of students get accepted into Uni last year. The kids are great, no guns or gangs, it is safe and there is another Aussie working there which is nice. The only crazy thing is I am teaching grade 12 forensic science/psychology, which I know nothing about. I am also their track coach, swimming coach and in the not too distant future I should be taking over the position of director of sports. The other bizarre thing is what they call me, I am officially Coach Pittaway to the students and staff actually call me Coach!!