New Year's Eve

From last night:

Section Austria:

The arena before showtime:

After the show, Blake got to thank the King of Austria for putting up a good fight for us:

Blake was really rooting for the Dragon (the bad guy). We are happy he has such great role models:

Today -

We found the right pub after being seated at the wrong pub and having to get up and leave. This pub has 300 beers on tap. Andrew had 5 tasters plus a big burger:

My goal for today was to explore the Paris Hotel:

They have a great shop/restaurant called the Sugar Factory that peaked my interest before setting foot into Las Vegas. It didn't let me down:

Actually, I loved it so much I called the Dal Toro and cancelled our New Year's reservations, giving up our table amongst Ferraris, in exchange for reservations on the patio at the Sugar Factory. It will be a prefixed 4-course menu where we can watch the fireworks shoot off up and down the strip. Too bad we won't be able to order the $1,000 gold chocolate fondue item off their regular menu:

I think Andrew is coming down with the flu because he has been sick in the hotel room and is walking around in a jacket complaining that it is cold. Hopefully, he will make it through the night okay and better yet, not be sick for the flight home tomorrow. Please pray for him while I put on my best fake drunk girl face for the party tonight! Oh, and pray my kids don't wake up before 1am and realize there is a babysitter in the hotel room instead of us!!!

Next Day

Today we saw the sights at a bit of a slower pace. We knew what to forego and what to focus on.

My thoughts this morning:

*I love how there are bathrooms every 10 feet in this town (a pregnant woman's dream and they are all clean to boot)

*Do people really think they are cool drinking out of kitsch, life-size, plastic guitars with accordion straws?

*Next time I visit I will stay in a centrally located hotel

Things we did before crashing at the hotel before our family show:

I love seeing this Jelly Belly Statue of Liberty every time we walk through New York, New York on our way back to our hotel:

The future Andrew and Shannon:

Goal #1 accomplished. Get family photo taken with showgirl at Harrah's:

Goal #2 accomplished. We saw the chocolate fountain at the Bellagio. It set a Guinness Book World Record and is the "world's largest chocolate fountain." It is cool, but I would have liked to have seen something like in the original Charlie and the Chocolate Factory movie:

In case you wanted to replicate the fountain in your home:

Two hours until showtime. We got tickets to the Tournament of Kings where Blake and Reade can watch real knights joust and fight while the adults eat turkey legs.

Vegas! Baby!

Nobody ever said, "Vegas is like Time's Square on crack." This place is fabulous. I can't believe it took me 33 years to get here. I love this place. My legs and feet hate this place. Maybe being three + months pregnant isn't ideal, but I am still having a blast.

Some of my thoughts:

*Buffets are not that great

*Blake and I cannot take our eyes off the girls who dance in the casinos on top of the card tables

*New Year's weekend is very busy

*The hotel rooms and kid arcades don't actually smell like smoke

*They have Hudson Newsstands in the NV airport

*Three days is not enough time to check this place out. Actually, it is probably a good amount of time, but everything is so dang expensive there is no way to do it all in the time you are here.

A not-so-great Elvis:

Bumblebee on the street. Blake's dream come true:

One of my childhood favorites. Am I really the only person who loves Chuckie movies?:

The fountain show (short and semi-impressive) in front of the Bellagio. I really liked seeing this sight because it was featured on an episode of the Bachelorette. They made her and her date sit on a faux island in the middle of the fountains during a show. The TV made it look fantastic, but in real life I can only imagine how uncomfortable that would have been. Awkward date for sure:

Our home away from home. Blake loves the castle theme. We are 5 stories up with a beautiful view of a brick wall (10 feet away), the pipe in the bathroom detached and sent sewer-smelling water all over our bathroom floor, and the bathroom has mold on the ceiling. Not the absolute worst (a place in Tahoe takes that cake) and not the best (we just stayed in a hotel in Fresno that tops my list):

My legs are begging for the Monorail tomorrow so I hope we get to incorporate that piece of transportation.

Merry Christmas

From our family to yours, Merry Christmas.

Solstice

The Winter Solstice used to be my favorite day of the year. Having children has changed my view of the sun. I used to loathe it, but now it comes in handy because it is easier to send the kids outside to play. We celebrated with Andrew's mom, dad, and sister (+1 - Rik). At Thanksgiving, my mother gave me an authentic Swedish pig advent candle holder. I was horrible at remembering to light it each of the four Sundays prior to Christmas so we lit them and said all of the advent prayers in one evening. I hope to be more on top of things next Christmas season:

One true Catholic plus some stand-ins:


Rik whipped out his 5-Santa Christmas vest for the occasion. Yes, there are four Santas in the front and one Santa in the middle of the back. He picked it up at a vintage shop when he lived in NY so we encouraged Ellen to put one of hers on so the Christmas spirit would be busting at the seams. Boy was it:


Tonight is a night of gathering. I hope we won't look like Hansel and Gretel and leave bits and pieces behind as we go to spread cheer.

Noise

The noise in my head has been so loud today. The hustle and bustle that my neurons are making in my head cause me to focus on the tasks that help keep the calm. That includes:

Dehydrating more persimmons (round 2). I went to the organic garden supply to buy some magic bees wax lotion and found a basket of "free" persimmons for the taking. My solution, cube them instead of slice them and add them into the granola mix once the granola has baked. I love to cut the core into pieces so I can enjoy their stars:


Baking the Christmas bread. Batch one is fun and batch two tires me out a bit. I like focusing on the finishing touches:


The nativity scene is getting a bit noisy too. Animals are stirring and Mary is lying down getting ready for her labor to start in a matter of days. I know they speculate that Jesus probably was born in spring, but I still give the wooden Mary a shout out for those nine months of pregnancy:

Gifted

I know you all need help finding that one person that one special gift. If you are pressed for time or you haven't gotten Aunt Flo that perfect gift then head on over to your local CVS (RIP Longs Drugs) for this needle in a haystack:

I was in CVS to buy maraschino cherries and spice drops and stopped in my tracks when I saw this. How great is this? Who is brave enough to put this on their face?