December is a great season, I love seeing all the (tasteful) holiday decorations...candles in people's windows, wreaths, menorahs, etc..
This year, Hanukkah was pretty low key, we ate latkes, lit the menorah, sang songs, exchanged presents, preformed in The Nutcracker on the Saturday and Sunday ( yes, that was just me...not my parents), we drove off to New York for Monday and Tuesday (my dad went to a conference)...okay, so maybe it wasn't as low key as I made it sound, anyway...
[the famous statue's better side, well...maybe not!]
On Monday, we visited Ellis Island. Though I got museumitis pretty quickly, it was very interesting walking around in the same place that my ancestors had probably walked through. (The cafeteria also had very good food!)
[Who, what, when, where...the only thing this exhibit was missing is 'how'!]
Probably my favorite room in the main museum was the statistics room, I know it sounds sort of boring, but it most certainly was not! In it, there were a bunch of fun looking exhibits, some showing how many people of what origin came to America in which years (above), and some showing how many people of which gender came to America in what year (below).
[ladies first!]
[lined up with a better view]
We also got to take a quick trip to the New Jersey half of the island (no passport required!) that was fairly entertaining, crossing from New York to New Jersey all the while being on the same piece of land (and in the same building!) The story behind that:
here!
[One of the hospital buildings, yes, it actually is in New Jersey...I wasn't joking!]
[test: is this the same hospital building as above? Answer: I don't know, all three of them look the same in photographs!]
All in all, my mom and I had a great time, and to add to that: it snowed, and we got to check out some great vintage consignment shops...can't wait to go back!
