Subway Experiences And Solo Excursions

Things we've gotten to see on the subway so far:

• The rats are real! We didn't see any on the train, but they were down in the tracks, looking for food.

• The entire subway platform really does smell like urine. All of the time. Regardless of how nice the area above is.

• Drum circles are LOUD! Especially when being performed on a subway platform that is essentially just a box made of metal, concrete, and marble.

• Drunk people do not respect your personal space. We had a lovely (large) gentleman stand square in front of us (while the rest of the subway was mostly empty), swinging his bag against our knees and asking us if we were getting off at the next stop so that he could have our seats. Luckily, we were.

Our first subway ride to the hotel after eating lunch yesterday.

Okay, so I took my first solo "adventure" today! The wife of Steve's co-worker that we're traveling with (got all of that?) wanted to crash at the hotel and read this morning, so I decided now was a good time to be gutsy and go out alone. I wasn't so much worried about getting mugged as I was making a total fool of myself! 

If I truly wanted to play it cool, I probably shouldn't have stopped to take a selfie, but I had to document the moment! I walked to CVS, got lost about 3 times, had to keep stopping in the middle of the sidewalk and turn around, but I made it!

I probably looked a little crazy as I mumbled to the Google maps app on my phone, but I found the pharmacy and then found my hotel again! Success!

Trattoria Dell'arte And Lindy's Cheesecake

Have you ever seen the Dylan McDermott version of Miracle on 34th Street? We loved it as kids (and adults!), and there's a scene where the two love interests have this one, great date. It's Christmastime in New York, and they go window shopping and have dinner at this little restaurant, sitting right near the window. 

Okay, that was a really long explanation, but ever since I was a kid, I wanted to have a date at a restaurant like that. I wanted to walk the streets of New York at Christmas, sit in a cozy restaurant, right near the window, and watch people walk by on the street while having a romantic date. 

Tonight, was that date! We were walking around downtown this afternoon and passed a restaurant that I thought looked great! We went back tonight and it was beautiful! 

The menu for Trattoria Dell'arte

Sitting right next to the window!

Pesto ravioli with spinach and arugula. The pesto was soooo strong, but it was still delicious!

 

The outside view. And yes, that is a giant, porcelain nose in the top floor!

Lindy's Cheesecake for dessert! We brought Oreo cheesecake back to our hotel and crashed in bed. It was a great first day!

Kissing selfies outside our hotel! It was freezing and snowing, but the lights made a "moment"!

Central Park And Times Square

We flew into LaGuardia around 11:00 this morning, but couldn't check-in to our hotel right away, so we decided to walk around a little. 

The guys are stuck in conferences during the day all week, so we walked around to some of the places they wanted to see.

We grabbed lunch at Carnegie Deli, because...you have to eat at Carnegie Deli at least once when you're in New York! Steve and I split a delicious, open-face, roast beef sandwich.

After lunch, we walked through Central Park and up to Times Square. The park was beautiful, and we got to walk to the Bethesda Fountain. Whitney's a history buff and loves cool architecture, so I had to take a bunch of pictures for her!

My family grew up a little obsessed with Law & Order, and all I could think about in the park is how many people had died! I saw all of the bridges and rocks that have been "crime scenes" throughout the  last 20 years of watching the show, and it was kind of fun that it all looked so familiar! (Is that really messed up???)

I felt like I was in my homeland! I love Times Square! It was freezing, but there's just nothing like it!

I had to chuckle at myself, thinking of all the cute clothes I tried to pack for this week. It's so cold that the only outfits anyone will see in pictures is my coat and scarf!

NYC Or Bust

I am so excited about this trip! (I'm also really nervous and sad to leave the girls for a week, but I'm trying to focus on the positive.)

This will be the first trip that Steve and I have ever taken without the girls that was longer than a quick weekend in North Georgia. 

Steve has a conference at the New York Federal Reserve, so we're spending a week in the city, right at Christmastime! I love New York! I've been a few times with my family, but Steve's never been, so we're excited to do all of the cheesy tourist things like Times Square and the Statue of Liberty. My wish list includes the Brooklyn Bridge, FAO Schwartz, and the Plaza! At this exact moment, I'm starving, so I think I'm most excited about a restaurant that one of my friends told me about in the basement of the Plaza Hotel called The Todd English Food Hall. 

Can't wait to post fun things about this week!

No matter what we did, we couldn't get a picture without our sleeping buddy next to us!

Ornaments And Lights

We finally got our tree completely done! This was the most fun we've had with it because Bella is at the age where she understands and wants to be involved in every step! Evelyn just wanted to eat the lights. And the hooks. And the ornaments. Case in point...

 

Squirt was into EVERYTHING! It will be interesting to see how crazy I go the rest of the month trying to keep her from ingesting Christmas decorations.

Bella hanging her first ornament of the year. Grandma and Grandpa got her a horse this year, and she's been waiting all day to hang it on the tree!

Evelyn hanging her first ornament. We have her a soft one to hang, so nothing would break.

Daddy and Evelyn, checking out the loot. (Look at her little ponytail!)

Little hands being mischievous!

Evelyn took every. single. picture. like this tonight. I'm absolutely positive she knew exactly what she was doing and was just trying to spite me.

Being silly!

 

Mama and Daddy pictures with the girls and their "Baby's 1st" ornaments! So much fun remembering!

All done! I'd love to say that my "laid back, never Type-A" (ha!) personality let the girls put the ornaments wherever they wanted, but I ended up convincing Bella to watch How The Grinch Stole Christmas on the couch with Daddy while I "fixed" a couple of ornaments.

It was a good night! A little stressful trying to keep Evelyn's little hands occupied, but we survived!

Best. Tree Moment. Ever.

Whitney told me how much they loved the place they bought their Christmas tree from, so we decided to check it out...

We loved it! It was called Old Mountain Trees, and they went above and beyond to make it a wonderful experience! 

We drove up and there were only two other families there. We got to take a hayride by ourselves to the "forest" where the trees were set up. The girls thought it was the best thing EVER! And I was more ecstatic than they were, so it was a good night all around! 

Once we picked out our tree, we got another hayride back to the firepit and roasted marshmallows while they loaded the tree onto our car. How great is that?!

All of that wonderful, Christmas magic took only 30 minutes, which with kids was pretty much the perfect time period!

 

 

She was SO EXCITED about the hayride!

 

 

Looking for our perfect tree...

 

 

We found it!

 

 

Posing in front of our tree

 

 

Just us and the girls

 

 

Christmas magic deserves kissing!

 

 

Evelyn was playing hard-to-get with the camera all night, but we got a few silly smiles.

 

 

Back at the fire, Daddy and Bella roasted marshmallows.

 

 

Chowing down!

 

 

Stage One is done! We got the tree stand and skirt set up;

tonight we'll work on lights and ornaments!

Christmas Advent Calendar

I love the idea of Advent calendars, but I always get nervous about the execution! Last year was the first time that I planned out activities ahead of time for each day in December. It worked pretty well, but I forgot a lot! I also didn't have any spiritual emphasis; just fun things for Bella and I to do during the day.

 

This year, I made my expectations a little more realistic and tried to include activities that we would already be doing as a family, like getting our picture taken with Santa at Chick-fil-A or buying our Christmas tree. I also really wanted to include a daily Bible reading, since Bella is at the age where she understands more about what Christmas is really about.

 

[We're working on it anyway; right now, she's still pretty pumped about presents and not quite as excited about Jesus' birthday.]

 

We read each night from the Jesus Storybook Bible, and I found an advent calendar on Pinterest that uses stories from this Bible to count down to Christmas. Since the girls are already familiar with this one, I figured we should stick with it - the graphics are beautiful and there's a paragraph at the end of each story that ties it to Jesus; you start with Creation and end at the cross.

 

There are so many ideas online about how to display your advent calendar! Since I'm decorating with red and gold this year and trying to include "woodsy" stuff, I thought I'd stay simple and use brown paper bags with red numbers on the front.

 

I love the way they turned out and I think they're sturdy enough to use them again next year if I want to! I have activities planned for each day - some of them for during the day with me and some of them are family activities to do at night once Steve gets home. I included things for Grandma and Grandpa to do with the girls, too, since we'll be gone in New York next week and they'll be staying with the girls, and for Papa and Mimi once they come up for Christmas!

So excited to start! We were still on the road for December 1st, so the activity was to sing carols in the car. Tonight we go get our tree!