Well with a new beginning at work just around the corner, we had a week to head back to where we began. Home for the holidays.
Our trip started in the NY area with a visit to Grandma Gail and Grandpa Dan’s house. We were there for a quick few days and were joined by our friends Peter and Kristin Athans and their children Grant and Sydney. As always we had a very full agenda for the few days we were there and we got to see many of the sights and not nearly enough of the people we wanted to.
Our first day in the area we spent the day with some of the Porcelli clan at Frank and Laurel’s house. A home-made Italian lunch and time for Siena and cousin Waverly to play together. If there is one thing we really regret about living so far away it is that Siena is missing out on a chance to grow up with her family. Waverly and Siena had a marvelous day together, playing and visiting with the neighborhood horses. Uncle Frank joined us and we had a nice afternoon catching up with each other. 
That evening Peter and Kristen joined the party with dinner at Grandma Gail’s and a chance for me to catch up with both of my sister’s and Siena with cousins Sarah and Mikey. Siena got her first wave of Christmas gifts and aunt Elizabeth and Siena have matching hats now. It was fun to have both my sisters together for some great family pictures. Next time we need to have Nick join us too.
The next day we headed to the Bronx to enjoy the annual train show at the New York Botanical Garden. We started out learning to make Gingerbread. Siena learned about all the ingredients before partaking in a cookie. With a tasty snack and some good play time behind us we headed in to see the trains. The exhibit is a walk through but for Siena it was a more of a park myself in front of trains I really like exhibit. “Look mommy, look daddy!” Siena loved the trains.
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| Learning About Gingerbread |
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| Look Mommy! A train. |
Since we were in the area we decided to visit the Bronx’s Little Italy and had dinner in the Arthur Avenue neighborhood. Fully recharged we headed to midtown to Rockefeller Center and our annual picture by the tree. After enjoying the windows and show at Saks we headed into the mob and got our pictures by the tree. Now it was officially Christmas.
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| At the tree |
The next day we went back to NYC. The day began with a visit to the 9/11 Memorial. The construction in the area is moving along and the Memorial was both a somber and uplifting experience. It was nice to see the space turning into something other than the vast hole, but the heaviness of the area remains. We walked around the waterfalls and footprints, found the names of people that our friends or family knew or were related to who lost their lives 10 years ago. Siena walked with me around the footprint of the North tower and the idea that someday I would need to explain this to my little girl made me very emotional. There are some places that will always create visions in your mind, for me I will always see the towers, will never forget the sight of the wreckage and will always remember my first NY dinner date with Lisa at Windows on the World.
From downtown we headed uptown to see the windows and visit the lions. We grabbed a quick lunch where we got to visit with Caroline, Peter and Nancy Kehoe. Then we visited Macy’s, Lord and Taylor to see the seasonal windows and headed to the New York Public Library to see the lions. Siena had been reading a book about going to visit the lions, Patience and Fortitude, at the NY Public Library so we visited the library which was festively decorated and had the original Winnie the Pooh and friends on display in a special exhibit.
SOUTH
We don't often visit Virginia at the holidays, it's usually in the Spring or Summer. Since it was the Christmas holidays we stayed at one of our favorite Virginia places so we could be strategically located for visiting with Grandparents. The Hotel Roanoke is a historic hotel and they do a beautiful job of decorating the hotel. They host a tree decorating contest and Siena’s favorite of about 30 trees was the Little Mermaid tree. Every time we left or came back to the hotel she would run over to it and listen to the music and stand by to watch it.
On our visit we were able to spend time with Granny Swing (Lisa's Mom) and Uncle Sam. We had dinner at the hotel the evening we arrived and visited and had a chance to catch up. later that night Aunt Elizabeth and her boyfriend Johnnie joined us for coffee and dessert. We walked through the city square on our way to the coffee shop and saw the huge lighted Christmas tree.
The next day we spent time visiting the local Bedford Museum where they happened to be having a train exhibit. There we talked with a retired train conductor and played with a special Thomas train display . Later in the day we made a trip to the Virginia Transportation Museum to see their full size trains and model train displays. The evening was capped off with dinner at Liberty Station, a restaurant that has a train car attached to it. Afterwards we took in the local Bedford light show and all had a great time singing the twelve days of Christmas with Siena. The next day Siena highlighted her visit to Granny’s by chatting, playing and giving lots of hugs and kisses. 
Then it was off to visit with Grammie Jane and Grandpa Doug, Aunt Elizabeth and Uncle Robert. Grammie Jane made us a special dinner that evening and afterwards we made pine cone bird feeders which we all loved and have contined to make in California!
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| Making Bird Feeders |
Grandpa Doug was recovering from a recent hip replacement surgery so unfortunately he wasn’t able to join us in all the festivities but he enjoyed having Siena cheer him up and help him recover while we visited. She was very intrigued by Grammie Jane's many nativity sets and enjoyed playing with them and bringing them to show Grandpa.
Siena visited Grammie Jane's workplace (and mommy's alma mater), Radford University, where we popped in to say hello to the Grandma club, visit the library and the bookstore to buy a sweatshirt. All the Grandma's love to share with each other about their grandchildren.
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| Hanging in the bookstore |
We attended a breakfast with Santa, Grammie Jane and long-time friend Tara and her daughter Bailey and son Wyatt. We also took a road trip to a local favorite Christmas light show in nearby Bristol Tennessee at the Bristol Motor Speedway. It was a holiday highlight and we loved the lights but I think we’d all agreed it was awesome to see the look on Siena’s face when she saw the lights. It was quite an attraction and near the end of the light display we drove on the quarter mile track and stopped in the middle to roast marshmallows, ride train and carousel rides and take in the light show in the stands. Afterwards we had a nice dinner together at the Fatz Restaurant.
We created many special memories and were so grateful to be able to visit all the Swings and our Northeast families for Christmas.
