2009 Annual Mugherini Family Christmas Party

The Mugherini Family Christmas party was held at The Continental in Saugus again this year. It's a nice spot for the party and Rose does a really nice job with this family event. She engages all of her elves who help her pull it all together. This year, Rose opened the party with a dedication to Chris Barnes, who enjoyed this part so much and looked forward to it every year.

As always, there was great food at the party. Being the little Italian girl that she is, Liv loved the pasta!

There was lots of family at the party this year. UN, Ernie and Theresa were there.

Neal and Andrea were having fun.

We all had a great time!

After we spent some time visiting and enjoying a nice luncheon, Santa arrived with his bag full of toys.

Gianna was all ready and climbed right up on Santa's lap to get her present.

Dot, April and Angelica watched as Santa gave out gifts to all the good little boys and girls.

Then he called Angelica's name and she climbed up on Santa's lap to get her gift.

But Liv wasn't too sure about this Santa Claus guy. But, she did want to get that present. So, she sat safely in Mommy's lap with her new friend Lauren next to her and Santa brought her a gift. All was right in the world!

After Santa handed out all the gifts, he posed for a few pictures with anyone who had been good this year. Here is Ernie, Theresa, Santa, Sally and Rose.

Caroline and Lauren were good this year, too!

After Santa, everyone got ready for the Yankee Swap.

Theresa got a Snowman Kit - hat, carrot nose, pipe, scarf  - to dress up a perfect snowman. She decided to try it on for all of us. She's lookin' good, don't you think?

While Liv wasn't interested in going up to get her gift from Santa, she was definately all set with helping Nonna go up and open a grab-gift.

Liv and Nonna liked their grab-gift so they decided not to trade it.

While everyone was opening their grap-gifts, Liv found the dessert table. She figured no one would miss just one.....

But, I think she had more than one sugary dessert. What do you think?

But then Mommy stepped right in and took control. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted......

It was a nice party. Neal, Dot and April all had a great time.

And no Mugherini event is complete without a little singing and dancing!

We  hope you are enjoying the holiday season!

"B" is for "Birthday" and "Boston"

Earlier this month was my Mom's birthday! I decided to take a vacation day from work so we could do something together during the day. So, I got up in the morning, went to The Club to do a work out, then I headed up to Beverly to meet up with the Mom.

When I got there, Mom was waiting for me and ready to go.

So, we put on our jackets and headed right out!

Since it was the Christmas season, we decided it would be good to see a Christmas movie. So we went up to Jordan's Furniture in Reading.

So we could go the the IMAX 3D Theater.

And see Jim Carrey in the new Disney version of  "A Christmas Carol".

I have to say the IMAX theater as Jordan's was a great place to see this show. The seats shake and vibrate, the audio is amazing and the 3D made you feel like you were right there with the ghosts of Christmas past and present when they flew over the rooftops and between the old building s in London.

After the show, we went to Chili's for a some lunch.

As you can see from the sky over Chili's, it was a nice sunny day. So, after lunch went for a nice car ride! It was  a nice day - Happy Birthday, Mom!

The next weekend was our holiday weekend in the city. Neal had made hotel reservations at the The Fairmont Copley Plaza Hotel. This is one of our favorite hotels to stay in downtown. When we arrived, the lobby of the hotel looked wonderful. It was all dressed up with truely elegant decorations. The arched doors leading to the main ballroom were trimmed.

The centerpiece in the lobby under the huge chandeler was decoreated with holly, berries and pine with other floral pieces.

And there was a large Christmas tree with an old sleigh in the lobby, too!

When we checked in, they had a wonderful large room all ready for us.

We had a great view of the Boston Public Library from our window.

Before we headed out for dinner on Friday night, we relaxed a little bit in our room.

After we unpacked and settled in, we decided to have dinner at Legal Seafoods in the theatre district. Befofe we went to dinner, we stopped at the City Bar at the Lenox Hotel to have a drink. The lobby of the Lenox Hotel was all dressed up, too.

We walked down to Legal's Seafood and the streets of Boston looked very festive!

These decorations were on the backside of the Four Seasons. They looked great!

It was a full moon that evening and there was a little bit of haze in the sky that formed a little halo around the moon. It was beautiful over Newbury Street that night.

On Saturday morning, we went to Starbuck's and then we headed out to do some shopping. The entrance to the Prudential Center had a huge, beautful wreath.

There were lots of people out shopping.

They had some holiday entertainment at the Prudential Center, too. The Back Bay Bellringers were there.

The bells they ring are huge!!

On Saturday afternoon, we went to "Le Marche de Noel". It was small holiday craft fair at the French Library and Cultural Center on Marlborough Street. We had a really lot of fun!

On Saturday  night, we had reservations for dinner at Grille 23.  Dinner was really good.  Check out the holiday decorations are our table. Each table, the railings and the chairs were all decorated.They were outstanding!

Dinner was so good, we decided we'd stay for coffee and dessert - and we weren't disappointed! That is warm, melted chocolate in the pitcher and vanilla ice cream in the dish. We even shared!

AFter dinner, stepped outside and it was snowing!

Neal had his umbrella and we walked back to the hotel in the snow.

On Sunday, we headed out to get our Starbuck's and there was more entertainment at the Prudential Center. This guy (the singer on the left) he thought he was Michael Buble.

With hot coffee in hand, we headed out to take a walk around the city. Someone had decorated the John Singleton Copley statue in Copley Square!

The snow storm of Saturday night was long gone and the old historic Back Bay church looked great against the bright blue Sunday morning sky.

So did the Boston Public Library.

You could really see how bright blue the Sunday morning sky was against the John Hancock Tower.

Trinity Church looked great,too.

But even the blue sky and the bright sunshine couldn't fool anyone. It was cold. These icy-covered, empty benches tell the story. Winter was here and it will be a while before anyone spends any measureable amount of time sitting on the benches in Copley Square.

After our Sunday morning walk around the city, it was time to check out of the hotel and head home.

The Fairmont Copley Plaza was a wonderful place for us to spend our holiday weekend in the city! We had a really, really great time!

Merry Christmas to everyone!