Christmas in New York City

The weekend before Christmas, mom and Emily came to visit us. We took the opportunity to visit NYC for Christmas, as we had always talked about doing. Unfortunately, Matt had to work and stayed behind. After realizing that Amtrak was ridiculously expensive, we decided to take Megabus, which was a real steal - though our trip home almost was a disaster. We arrived in NYC Thursday morning in the freezing cold and trooped around the city all day taking in the sights, including Times Square, FAO Schwartz, Fifth Ave, the restaurant Serendipity (they have a $1000 sundae on the menu - only in New York!), Rockefeller Plaza and the ice skating rink and tree, and a Christmas Concert at St. Patrick's Cathedral. Then on Friday we rose early and got on TV at the Today Show, had hot chocolate at Dean and Deluca, saw the first wooden escalators in the country at Macy's, ate at Tavern on the Green, walked Central Park, and saw the Rockettes Christmas Spectacular. Whew! Just typing all of that made me tired! Then we waited in the freezing cold for two hours for our bus that was insanely late. Luckily we made it home before the historic snow storm left 22.4 inches of snow at our house on Saturday alone. Needless to say, we stay in and enjoyed watching the snow from inside our warm house and made Christmas treats. Shockingly, Philly was able to get the roads relatively clear and mom and Emily made it to the airport and back to Nashville on Sunday.

Here are some of my favorite pics from the trip (Em - I still need to get yours)


Mom and Em in front of the very sparkling star made by Swarovski in Rockefeller Plaza.

Do you see the couple in the upper right hand corner? The man has on a khaki colored jacket - they just got engaged! Congrats to them whoever they are. Later that night we saw a guy propose who bought the $200 proposal on ice package. They cleared the ice, played a song of his choice from the CD he brought, had a videographer, and let them take a victory lap around the rink!

Performance at FAO Schwarz on a piano like the one from Big. And no - we didn't let the little kids stand in front of us. We threw elbows for a good spot up front!

Em loves her lions. Raaarrr.

And mom loves her giraffes - she still remembers seeing the life-size giraffes at FAO when she was a kid. We question whether they really were life-size or if she was just shorter. But she insists that they were bigger back then.

Em with the pink Christmas tree at Serendipity. (Yes it is pink, my photography skills leave something to be desired.)

The Goins girls with their ginormous sundae at Serendipity. Apparently the $1000 sundae has gold leaf on it, and you have to make reservations 48 hours in advance to be able to order it. Seriously, who would pay that much for a sundae?!?

If you'll notice, in the background, the security guards scarves are the trademark Tiffany's blue. Nice touch, but as cold as it was they needed blue parkas.

Rockefeller Plaza and the Christmas tree. The ice skating rink is below the tree.

Em and I pausing long enough to smile in the freezing cold for a photo-op with the tree. Really I just wanted to eat the pretzel that was in my left hand :)

City lights - Em says that Vegas is way brighter - I can't even imagine.

Mom says hi to Vanderbilt from the Today Show.

And we said hi to just about everyone we could!

Mom and Em are strategizing about how they can get their signs on TV.

It was 13 degrees outside while we were waving our signs. We definitely need a little something to warm us up!

Mom and Em in front of the Empire State Building. We almost passed right by without noticing. That's how much there is to see in NYC.


Mom and I in front of the 34th Street entrance to Macy's.

Tonight, Dec 31, 2009, Tavern on the Green will serve its last meal. We decided to grab lunch there before we never had the option again.

Mom smiling pretty in front of one of the many Christmas trees during lunch.

Emily posing with a Tavern on the Green sign.

Me showing Emily how much enthusiasm she should have displayed when posing with the sign.

Em with another lion.


Mom and Em in Central Park. At this point they may have a bit mad at me because I had taken 500 pictures. They will be glad to know that this, my favorite picture, is the last one that I took in that series.

The chandelier inside Radio City Music Hall before we saw the many famous legs of the Rockettes.