Julia's turn

Julia and I usually just do mini-me shots. She's the one who started this actually. When I come and visit she rifles through my stuff and creates an outfit.

 

 Some classic Jessica styles from the last couple of years.

 

 I swear I did not put her up to this.

This was my x-mas eve outfit.

 But I thought it was high time to include her in the back-to-back ritual.

She's almost 8. She'll have me beat by the time she's 11 for sure.

Tomio is 10 and a half

Yes, it's finally happened ... here he is last year at this time:

Here he is just a couple of months ago in November:

And here he is at 10 and a half:

 

What is she feeding him?!?

the New York City blizzard of 2010

I gotta say, for me this was just fun fun fun!! We awoke after a day of Xena to the city looking like this:

 

And I had not brought gear of any kind, but since Tomio is so tall I just wore his stuff from last year! We all got ready, grabbed the sleds and walked to the park.

Julia was still in warrior-princess mode attacking me with snowballs along the way.

And we bypassed the kiddie hill for a more challenging course where we spent the better part of two days.

In true snow-day fashion, we made lots of friends in the park as people played in the snow. A lovely group speaking Arabic stuck in the city on their way to Boston who said I looked like a movie star (which was funny in my snow gear and red face); a quartet of early 20's Asian boys intent upon making our trail run smoother as they used a snowboard as a sled 2 at a time; and a huge posse of Brazilian boys who when I pointed out that they were ruining the jump we'd been building with their shenanigans, pitched in and fixed it up.

We were so busy having fun building a snow fort and taking turns bombing down the hill on Tomio's new sled that I forgot all about the camera.

it was a very Xena X-mas!

December 25th was a busy day, what with opening all those prezzies and having dinner with my young hosts grandparents. It had been so mild and dry that I even remarked to 10 year old Tomio "tomorrow we should go for a bike ride in the park". But then, as you all know, there was a blizzard.

So although Emi was cursing me when she saw me wrapping up those swords and chakrams, let me tell you that stuff made the being stuck inside pretty fun!! First we watched a bunch of videos and the kids practiced their battle cries - ai ai ai ai ai aiiiiii!

 

Then we watched Hercules get a lesson in feminism from the Amazon women which he then sagely passes along to a village of men.

There was some chakram throwing practice (ouch!) ...

 

 Some displays of fancy sword-personship,

 and then it was time to battle!

 

Hercules fought valiantly and with great gusto ...

 But Xena (and her horse) always win!

Ai ai ai ai ai ai aiiiiiii!!!!

Christmas in New York

Okay, so I lost my voice the day I got there ...

and there was a blizzard the day after Christmas ...

 

but I did have a wonderful time!

The kids were very happy to see me,

(yes, that's Xena's sword she's unwrapping)

and they loved all their presents!

under the weather and over the moon

So ya, I've been sick. But I am willing myself to be better because tomorrow I'm leaving for NYC to have another x-mas in New York. I wasn't going to go, but then my sister decided to come for a visit in January instead of now and the ticket was cheap!!

So off I go to visit my favourite kids. Tomio has been saying he doesn't want gifts this year, only Jessica. And it will be a surprise! I'm sure to come back exhausted but happy to have made some more wonderful memories with my little goofballs. It's going to be a very Xena xmas!!

Oh yeah, and this will be on tonight at 9:00 pm. This show is not something I would watch - ever - and I'm not encouraging you to watch either. But if you're interested in seeing me on it my bit comes on in the first 5 minutes and is pretty ridiculous and awesome (if I do say so myself). But beware, after that it gets pretty offensive, and no, I had no idea what the rest of the content would be at the time.

 

Hopefully it will turn up on youtube and I can post it on its own for all my fans out there (and by that I mean family and friends of course)! Love you all!

UPDATE: here's the link I'm on just before the 2 minute mark 

shopping in New York

Believe it or not I don't always do a lot of shopping when I visit. And this time I only had one thing I really wanted on my list. Of course that one thing required me to enter a shoe store. This shoe store - Infinity Shoes:

which happens to be the home of Miz Mooz - one of my favourite brands. I really wanted these! The colour is actually much warmer and they are surprisingly comfortable - love!!

Emi loves Anthropologie house stuff even more than I do so we almost always find time to pop in there. And I found this lovely number (Blurred Fresco by Elevenses) marked down from $230 to $99.99!!

I'd been wanting something with more colour in it to combat the dreary winter and I got a cute little hat to go with it. I love it, but wondered what boots shall I wear with this ensemble?

So I went back to Infinity Shoes thinking I might try something on in a nice shade of cherry. They must have known I was coming because they announced BOGO when I walked in the door. Yes, buy one, get one half off, and this is what I got:

A gorgeous pair of Fryes (for less than they are charging online) and then ...

these Miz Mooz beauties were half off for $75!!! It was a good thing I brought my big suitcase!

what do I do in the Big Apple?

People seem to think that I have some kind of crazy glamorous life because I come to New York a couple of times a year. But really all I do is hang out with my best friend and chase around after her kids. I try to spend as much time with them as I can because a couple of weeks out of the year just is not enough.

Julia has just started calling me "auntie Jess". She's 7 now and likes the idea that I am "real" family - but it makes me feel a bit old. Tomio, for some un-known reason has started to call me "Jessie" which I used to refuse to allow anyone to call me. But fair enough given that I call him anything from "Tio" to "hunny-bunny" (which he has yet to complain about).

 

They like it when I drop them off and pick them up from school. They like it when we have pillow fights. Julia likes to wake me up with the loudest noise-maker she can find - this time was a toy coffee grinder with fake beans that makes a serious racket. They like to snuggle up in bed and watch movies - I got them hooked on Xena, ai ai ai ai ai ai ai!!!

I always like to try and do something with them in Central Park. Over x-mas we went skating, which was kinda nutty since the place was jam-packed. This time we went for a bike ride! Little did I know that it's 6 miles all the way around the park and there aren't very many places to cross over with the bikes. Thank goodness Tomio has an iPhone so we could figure out where we were! So we just had to dismount and cross over on the foot path by the Jakie O reservior to catch the uptown bike path back home since it was getting dark fast. It was quite the adventure and no injuries!!

Tomio rightly noted that we always go out and have sushi together and he desperately wanted us to go to Morimoto (the restaurant owned by one of the Iron Chefs) but that's not in anybody's budget. We did have lots yumminess at Momoya - Tomio had his favourite uni and everyone loved the miso black cod I ordered!

I also make a point to visit my friend David and his daughter Sophia who is now 3. She has recently started calling all of their female friends "auntie" so I guess I'd better get used to this moniker. This summer they went to several weddings and she didn't get off the dance floor until the music stopped. Apparently she gets this from her auntie Jess. She is such a sweet-petite delight!

And Emi and I always have at least one breakfast at Cafe Lalo (yes, from You've Got Mail). This time we had 2 - they make the yummiest steamed eggs! And I got the fine fellow a great t-shirt for his collection. We also had a couple of great lunches at Peacefood Cafe. They make amazing salads & soups and have lots of choices for wheat & dairy-free me.

And yes, there was some, ahem, shoe shopping ....

Tomio is 10

I've been going to NYC at least once a year since Tomio was born. He was my first baby, you know, the first of my friends babies, and I love this kid like crazy. Sometimes he drives me a little crazy but he and I have a bond with each other that is very special and we have lots of silly, koo-koo, crazy times when we're together.

He's always been tall for his age and he was creeping up on me at x-mas, but look at this - he's officially taller!! And this photo was taken as we picked him up from his first school dance. I know it's a ridiculous cliche, but he really is growing up so fast. His doctor recently told him he could be as tall as 6'7" - that's just nuts!

in NYC this week

With my favourite goof-balls!

We may even do this again!

I'm just happy to see their faces and hear their laughter and see how much they've grown!

I'll be back next week!

new years in new york

Before I forget, celebrating the new year in NYC was full of more fun with kids. My friend David is an opera singer and we spent many late nights together up to no good in college. He and his wife Nicole hosted a small gathering of friends and neighbours. His daughter Sophia helped us ring in the new year with her purple tutu - she is adorable and speaks in very sophisticated full sentences - she's 2.

We played a very silly game involving descriptions, charades and one word clues, sometimes called "celebrity" which I had only ever played the previous year, on new years day. David and another friend from college and I were on the same team. We won with my clue of Ciccone (for Madonna of course).

The next afternoon found Emi, her husband Andrea and I hanging out in the meat-packing district.

First at Pastis for brunch ...

Then we went for a walk along the High Line. NYC has taken a derelict railroad and turned it into a really cool park. I wish I had actually taken some pictures of it, but the views were very distracting ...

Frank Gehry's "Iceberg" ...

and the first day of the year was glorious!