last blogger on the block: Christmas Surprises in Store

There is nothing like surprising my kids!! And this Christmas turned out to be the best surprise EVER!! Thirteen family members flew all the way from Mesa to Yardley to spend a week with us and celebrate Christmas. Sugar, Jim, all six Felsteads and all five Wood family members were here and the 19 of us spent the next several days seeing and doing all we could.

We went non-stop while everyone was here and didn't make it to bed before midnight most nights. On Thursday we visited some of Philadelphia's historical sites, including the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, and even Reading Terminal Market.

On Friday, we took the train into NYC to see the Statue of Liberty, the 9-11 Memorial and Museum, Times Square, Rockefeller Center, Central Park, Empire State Building, Chrysler Building, American Girl Place, St. Patrick's Cathedral, and all the department store Christmas windows.

Saturday we drove to Hershey in the pouring rain and spent all afternoon at Hershey's Chocolate World making our own chocolate bars, watching a 4D movie, and learning more about Hershey's chocolate. As soon as the sun went down we headed next door to Hershey Park for their Canylane Christmas where we spent the rest of the night riding rides till closing at 10pm. We had the whole park all to ourselves.

On Sunday we went to church and the spent the rest of the afternoon wrapping gifts and prepping for Christmas morning. We played a candy game and took pictures in our new MATCHING Santa pajamas.

Monday was mass chaos as the kids woke early and opened gifts quickly. We made dinner and gingerbread houses. It was so fun being together!

Tuesday we headed back to NYC - by 15-passenger bus and Suburban this time - to the Natural History Museum to see all the cool exhibits in the movie Night at the Museum. Then we went to see the Rockettes in the Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall. We finished up at Times Square and ate dinner at our favorite Indian restaurant in Princeton on our way home.

Wednesday we packed and cleaned the house and got everyone ready to head back to the airport that evening. It was the best and funnest week ever, and boy were there lots of tears shed when the family all left.

Ridin' in style in the 15 passenger van...

Eating famous Philly cheesesteaks at the historical Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia...

The sign says it all...

The kids' most exciting part of Philadelphia... meeting the carriage horses...

The Liberty Bell...

Jim, Berkley, Brooklyn and Presley hanging out at the Independence Hall Visitor's Center...

The kids and Thomas Jefferson in front of Independence Hall...

Independence Hall...

Can you spot Miss Lady Liberty in this picture? We opted to see the Statue of Liberty from the Financial District rather than take the long ferry ride over to Ellis Island. Miss Liberty is much more impressive up close though...

It was a somber feeling at Ground Zero where there once stood two very tall towers. The museum had the same feeling and by the end of three hours I was emotionally drained...

St. Peter's Cathedral...

It's a little fuzzy, but we're in Rockefeller Center in front of the big tree...

Keeping warm and enjoying NYC together...

The Felstead crew...

It's so beautiful light up at night!...

At Hershey's Chocolate World, the kids' favorite part was making custom chocolate bars and designing the packaging...

Each chocolate bar and wrapper was unique...

Waiting in line for the small ride at Chocolate World...

It turned out to be such a fun night riding rides at Hershey Park. The rain stopped just as we arrived, but by then all the other people had already left. We had the whole park to ourselves!...