It’s Christmas Time in the City…

 

(We pretty much sang that song all day)

My sister, Carrie is in town (again!) and yesterday we spent a wonderful day in the city!

I must say that we were definitely the cheeriest people in all of NYC!

My sister also made it her personal mission to say “Merry Christmas!” to as many people as possible!  And she thought that several people sounded “super grateful.”

We started out in Times Square and then hiked on down to Macy’s on 34th street (THE 34th street) to check out their deco and Santa.

Unfortunately, we were foiled, and you had to stand in an hour line to get into the little train where Santa was hiding! 

We were already feeling a little stress-sweaty-eyelid-twitchy just being around all of those people/whiny children (note to self: NEVER EVER EVER take Joseph and Isaac to Macy’s at Christmas!) so we were out of there!

Oh, the joy of being child-free!!

.

Next, we went to Ground Zero.

I have never been before, and I’m so glad that we went.

So sobering.  I must say that living here and having my husband work in the city has given me a much different perspective about that day.

.

But, on to shallower things,

like our delicious Thai food lunch.

 

MMMmmmmm!!

Afterwards, we decided to stand in line at Tkts (discount ticket stand) to see if we could get any tickets to Mary Poppins.

(Not Mary Poppins.  But- it’s Harry Potter!! So, here it is on my blog)

But, when we got up to the ticket stand, the only seats available were row “X” for $70 each.

We said, “Pass!” and skipped away!

Oh the joy of being child AND obligation-free!

.

Instead we settled for a carriage ride through Central Park.

On a full-moon night, while the buildings were just starting to light up.

After that we did some various Christmas shopping that I can’t talk about here because Carrie’s kids read my blog! (Hi Brenna, Grace, and Aidan!)

(My lips are mysteriously blue)

..

We decided to try some delicious-looking chestnuts that were roasting on a street-vendor’s open fire and…

They were DISGUSTING!

So we gave them to a homeless person!  He seemed grateful.  “Merry Christmas!”

.

We made a quick stop at Rockefeller Center

had some Junior’s cheesecake

and we were on our way back home!

.

I didn’t mention that I failed at subway planning and we ended up walking for miles and miles throughout the day.  Let’s just forget about that part. (as soon as my legs stop throbbing…)

Let’s also forget how I missed our stop on the bus ride home, and suddenly we found ourselves alone on the bus at the end of the line.

And how the bus driver took pity on two smiley-Christmas-spirity girls out alone at 10pm and drove us back to our stop PERSONALLY.  All by ourselves.

.

All in all, it was a wonderful, laughter-filled, stress-free day!  Hooray for New York at Christmas with sisters and no kids!

Thank you to my Brian for watching the kids and to Carrie’s Brian for sending her out here!  B-R-I-A-N, Brians are the best!!