Hudson’s first Christmas

Having a child at Christmastime does seem to change the nature of the holiday. Of course, at 5 months, Hudson doesn’t yet appreciate the celebration–besides the fact that he loves to stare at the Christmas lights, and has a lot of fun with the wrapping paper. We flew back to California to celebrate Christmas with both Ashley’s and my extended families. It was so fun to see everybody, and many of them met Hudson for the first time. A warm Christmas was par for the course for Ashley, who grew up in Southern California; but it took me a few years to get used to it when I first moved down to LA. But neither one of us was complaining when we strolled the docks in Long Beach in 70-degree weather, or when we dashed out barefoot in our bathing suits during one of Hudson’s naps. We enjoyed ourselves in Northern California as well, getting a chance to see Hudson’s cousins who were visiting from Germany and meet up briefly with family and friends.















For New Year’s eve we returned to New York and allowed Hudson some rare screen time with a streaming video of Paris at 6pm. Fortunately, though the travel really did a number on his sleep patterns, he slept through the local striking of midnight and we all greeted the new year well-rested and in good spirits. We’re so grateful to share the holidays with this sweet little boy; it will be hard for 2012 to best 2011 but we look forward to being surprised.


Brrrrr…


Tonight we’re expecting a low of 16 degrees. It’s quite a change from California. Fortunately, we enjoyed a very mild New Year’s day–with sunny skies and a much more tolerable, mid-50s climate–to ease us back into winter on the east coast. Still, it’s nice to be home. We decided to embrace the dip in the thermostat and enjoy the last hours of vacation with a walk along the High Line yesterday around sunset. It’s unbelievable how different it looks from season to season. Even with barren trees and bracing winds, it’s still a beautiful (and crowded!) space









Happy New Year!

Ashley and I returned from California just in time for a quiet New Year’s eve. We’ve never made it out to Times Square for the big ball drop–have you? Worth it? Do you have any favorite traditions for ringing in the new?

Hope you are having a wonderful celebration wherever you are, and we both wish you a very happy and healthy New Year!

[Photo by Dave Beckerman]

 

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