Our friends, Jimmy & Kim, invited us to tag along with them this weekend to one of my favorite cities, NYC. There are few places I enjoy more during Christmas time then New York so we jumped on the opportunity.
On Friday night, we made it to Newark, NJ, met Jimmy's parents and crashed for the night.
Saturday morning, we got up and out as early as we could and took the Staten Island Ferry into Manhattan. When we got to the Ferry Station, we learned that it was Santacon in the city that day. There were a ton of Santa's & Mrs. Claus' headed into the city so we had to taken a quick picture with a few of them.
It was fun to take the ferry and see the city from the water.
We got a Coast Guard escort
It was already overcast and snowing when we got into Manhattan and it was fabulous. If it is going to be cold in NYC then it should be snowing.
Our first stop was for Jimmy, Kim and his parents to check into there hotel and then we were off to check out a Christmas must, Macy's.
We made it to the Santa Land area but it was a 2 hour wait so we headed to our next destination after doing a little looking around the store. Next on the list, Mood. It was fun to go run around the store that Project Runway designers uses in the show. But all the fabric was a little overwhelming. I would have no idea where to start.
We headed down to Times Square after Mood and we made our way to the Visitor Center there. Jed & I had never been there before but it was so cool to go and check it out. All the confetti they drop at New Years is there and you can write a wish/hope/goal on it for them to drop on New Years. So we all wrote one (or two) to be thrown out on New Years.
After Times Square we split from the group for a little while, grabbed a slice of pizza and did a little Christmas shopping before meeting up with everyone to go walking around Central Park.
Look Mathis & Nicki! We found the bridge you got engaged on!
As we were hanging out enjoying all the snow. We randomly ran into friends that live in the city! We were all so excited to see them.
Laura & Adam
We also went and explored Poet Corner, and it was so beautiful with all the snow. I love that every time we explore Central Park, we find something new.
After Central Park, we headed over to Rockefeller Square and spent some time with another NYC friend, Eric for a little while before headed over to Bryant Park to check out the Christmas Shops over there.
We weren't very successful but we had a lot of fun. We didn't have a lot of time before we headed over to Grand Central's shops before they closed.
Once the sun had sent and it was really cold and snowing, we headed back to Rockefeller Square to check out the tree and the light show, a Christmas must.
On our way home for the night, we accidentally walked right through a news interview. When we realized it we stopped to check it out and realized it was Geraldo.
Since the hotels were so expensive for the holidays, Jed and I check out staying at the YMCA and it was a fantastic experience. We will definitely be doing that again.
On Sunday, we pretty much ate our way through New York before we had to leave.
Murray's Bagels (I love there garlic bagels...sorry they stuck up EVERYTHING!)
Doughnut Plant (These are pretty close to the top of my all time list of donuts)
We made a return trip to Bryant Park for a few more Christmas gifts and some fun pictures.
Our friend, Laura, is a comic in NYC and at one of the venues she preforms, City Winery, they have created a wine just for her. So we had to go get it!
This place looks pretty cool. Hopefully next time we can come here for food, wine and to laugh at Laura.
I grabbing a few more bags of Hot Peanuts before meeting up with Jimmy, Kim and his parents to start our trip home.
It was beautiful on our way back to Staten Island. I just absolutely love this city and the skyline.
On our way home, we showed Jimmy and Kim a Castro Tradition of stopping off at Hershey's Chocolate World for a milkshake pick me up.
This house is made entirely of Hershey's candy!
We had such a great time and I am so glad we were able to spend some time in NYC around Christmas. Thanks so much for the invite, Jimmy & Kim!
Thanksgiving week is always crazy. Just like everyone else there, there is always so much to do and never enough time to do it. This year was no different than any other year. Our awesome friends, Mathis & Nicki made the trip to Virginia for Thanksgiving week. We had a great time hanging out, catching up and being silly for the first part of the week.
On Wednesday, we kicked them out of the house so we could have our Annual Video Thanksgiving. We absolutely love hosting Video Thanksgiving and I am so glad that all the students made it.
Thanksgiving morning was relaxing and low key. We slept in, watched The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and Mathis and Nicki made us a great big breakfast. Mathis had gotten up at 4 am to start smoking the turkey for our Thanksgiving dinner.
We spent the rest of the afternoon in the kitchen cooking, watching football and fixing appliances.
Around 4pm we headed over to Joe and Lisa's for Thanksgiving dinner. Jed fried the second turkey out back while everyone was busy with final touched for dinner.
It was a successful Thanksgiving and I think everyone had a great time.
Friday we spent at a basketball game, shopping and getting ready for the big game on Saturday.
Saturday was game day and Derley, Mathis, Nicki, Danielle & I got up and out early on Saturday morning so we could do a little tailgating before the big game.
It was probably the most stressful game of the season for me this year. I am so glad that we got to go, we won and Mathis and Nicki now truly understand the Tech-UVA rivalry.
It is so crazy to think that we have bet UVA the past 10 years straight! That is a long freaking time. Here is to another 10 + years with the Commonwealth Cup.
After the game, we went to see Jed before we all headed back to Blacksburg. I love going to see him after this game. We both have so many memories that surround this game and I love seeing him so excited and remembering all the games and stories that go along with this game.
