Christmas 2007

(Molly Post)

For Christmas this year, I decided that I wanted to be with Cody. It was a hard decision, but I didn't want to spend the holidays without him. However, my parents decided they didn't want to spend the holidays without me, so they came to New York (and brought Lily!). They came Saturday, December 22nd and left the day after Christmas. It was a wonderful weekend. They found a pet-friendly hotel for a steal - they had a living room and kitchen and tons of room for Lily to run around. Lily was a trooper and survived New York (she's extremely shy, so the big city was a bit frightening to her). I spent a lot of time at my parents hotel room playing with her!

Saturday, my parents and I had a wonderful dinner at Atlantic Grill, a seafood place on the Upper East Side. Sunday, Cody and I met my parents at Kinsale for lunch. My cousin, Cece, was in town visiting her boyfriend, Richard, so they came to join us. It was great to see a cousin around Christmas, since I wouldn't see them in St. Louis. Below is a picture outside of Kinsale with them.

Sunday evening, we sent my parents to a little French place, Le Refuge, for dinner while Cody and I had a quiet night. Cody was pretty exhausted at this point in the holidays, so I didn't want to wear him out on his day off. On Monday (Christmas Eve), my mom and I went shopping for some last minute gifts. We shopped for about 5 hours and had a lovely pizza lunch - it was the perfect day. My dad met Rob and they had a 2 hour lunch of their own - they needed some alone brother time to catch up. For Christmas Eve, Cody joined my parents and I at an Italian place in the East 80s. It was great food.

Christmas morning, Cody and I woke up around 9 AM and opened the presents we bought for each other. Below is a picture of our tree with all the presents under it and one of Cody opening his new pillow.

By about 9:30, we woke up his parents and sister in Steamboat and opened presents with them over the phone. It was my first cross-country present opening (Cody did this last year) - it was a lot of fun! We took pictures of what we were opening on our phones and sent them back and forth. We both got a few pairs of new SmartWool socks - they are the best!

After opening with Cody's parents, my parents came up to the apartment to open presents and have Christmas brunch. Isn't Lily cute!

After brunch, my parents went back to their hotel and we cleaned up the apartment. They came back over for dinner, and Rob and Celia joined us also. We made beef tenderloin for dinner and had some fantastic wine. The conversation was great as well.

It was a wonderful Christmas in the city...a little weird not being in St. Louis, but definitely one of the best I can remember.