Our daughter, Melissa, turns 40 on December 20.  Her husband, Eric, and I started planning a surprise party for her several months ago.  He did all the work, really, but I had to keep the secret…   It was a complete success, I’m here to tell ya, and her first remark to me after everybody yelled “surprise” was:  You usually can’t keep a secret.

But I did!!!   Let me show you…

Melissa has always made the very nicest friends, and her NYC family is the best.  The treat of the evening was the presence of two of our Evansville peeps, the Carnahan Sisters, who flew in for the occasion. It was a great party…

It was a quick trip, but we packed it full.  Any time I’m with the grandkids, there is always Love.  Just hanging out with Emma and Eliza fills my heart.

But, hey, it’s New York City…   It’s been a tradition to see the Radio City Christmas Spectacular since Emma was a sprout, and the City is such a nice backdrop for Festive Pictures…

As if all of that weren’t enough, we had breakfast with Santa after Sunday Mass.

The breakfast was given by the school that the girls attend and they had lots of baskets to raffle.  Casey got lucky and won one that will supply the kids with books for a while—the cherry on the sundae.

We flew back home without incident, collapsed and returned to work today.  I meant to post this much, much earlier, but back to work involved actual work and I had to have my nap….

We’re going to Nashville, TN this week-end to see the Rockettes with our Eville grand-daughter.  Till then…