First Thanksgiving with Curtis' Fam

This was the year we planned to visit Curtis' side of the family for Christmas; however, I will be too far along in my pregnancy to travel at that time so we compromised and spent Thanksgiving with them instead.  It was my first time that I got to experience a McDaniel-style Thanksgiving!  It had been 5 years since Curtis last celebrated with them.

The whole McDaniel family

As a tradition, each adult child brings a dish to the table for the Thanksgiving meal.  I brought green bean casserole and Curtis brought a sea-foam jello salad.  Everyone went around the table and shared something that they were thankful for from the current year.  They write their answer on a paper leaf that is displayed on the table each year.  It was neat to see all the things that his family was thankful for over the years - some big, some small (like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, haha).  

We also got to spend some time with his grandmother ("Nana") while were were there.  It was really nice to see her since we hadn't seen her in almost two years.  She was very excited about her great-granddaughter on the way!

The weather was amazing for a Thanksgiving in the Pittsburgh area.  We even played bocce ball and corn hole outside!  

Curtis was able to bond with Belle, their sweet dog.   She was so desperate for attention!

Thanksgiving night, we headed to the Grove City Outlet Mall to see what kind of deals we could find for Christmas gifts.  This is another one of the annual traditions in the McDaniel family.  I did feel bad for Megan (his sister) who had to work early the next morning.  I'm sure she was exhausted, but I'm glad she was able to join in the fun.

I thought this was such a cool picture of Curtis, his dad, his mom and Heather as they were putting up the Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving.

One more thing...in anticipation of my upcoming baby shower (post coming soon), Heather made us this motorcycle diaper display for our baby girl on the way.  She was so creative!  It's hard to see all that went into this, but she used bibs, receiving blankets, washcloths, socks and so much more.  She also made little booties and a cap for her.  Thanks Aunt Heather!

Our time flew by in Pennsylvania.  We had a great time celebrating with them.  It's hard to believe that the next time we see them all we will have a new little addition to the family!

NYC - Day 2

 Our second day began with a trip to Chinatown.  On our way, we saw the Brooklyn Bridge.

 Curtis enjoyed this huge building, so he snapped this shot.

 This building says "The True Administration of Justice is the Firmest Pillar of Good Government."  I thought this was a great quote and it goes along with Curtis & I's passion for justice.

When we arrived in Chinatown, Curtis mentioned that he enjoyed this area a lot more when he came with his family.  We really didn't find it to be a place where there were many tourists.  We left Chinatown and decided to walk towards the SoHo District, where Heather (Curtis' sister) had suggested was a great place to shop.  On our way, we discovered the Chinatown that Curtis had remembered with his family's trip.  Apparently, we had actually been walking around the authentic Chinatown, not the Chinatown you think of when you come to New York City (where they sell fake Coach purses and you can bargain for souvenir items).  I never really felt comfortable to purchase a fake Coach purse, so instead I just negotiated with them and purchased a black Pashima scarf for $4!

In the SoHo district, Curtis and I didn't end up purchasing anything.  I looked around at lots of clothing places, but I didn't find anything I had to have.

 For lunch, we went to this cute little restaurant called the "Corner Shop Cafe."  It was delicious!  The waiter asked if we were from out of town because we were so friendly compared to his other customers.

I think we went back to our hotel to rest after all of that walking and shopping.  We went to the Gershwin Theater and hoped to win the lottery to get front row seats for that night's showing of the Broadway show, Wicked.  Unfortunately, we did not win and I think we had a lot of hope that we would win those tickets.  So, instead we decided to go to hang out in Times Square for the night.

We ate a restaurant called "The Perfect Pint," but we didn't even have a pint of beer!  The food was amazing and I think it was our favorite place to eat of the entire trip.  We definitely plan on coming back here if we visit NYC in the future.

 We went to the large Toys R Us - here's the moving T-Rex.

 Curtis is very excited about the new Transformers movie that is coming out soon, so here he is posing in front of the huge Transformer in the Toys R Us.  He looks so serious!

 Here's the Empire State building.  We took this picture on our way to the huge Macy's department store on 34th street.  

I can't remember if Macy's had 7 or 8 stories, but it was overwhelming! I don't think I'm a shop-a-holic because it made me sick to even think about trying to shop throughout that store!  There was a Starbucks on almost every floor.

We finished the night with an ice cream snack at Cold Stone. 

 As we approached the Subway, we saw this sign about Harold Camping, the man who thought the world was going to end a few weeks ago.

One of the final pictures of the day -- me on the Subway...

...and Curtis on the Subway too!

We were pretty exhausted after a busy day.