Silver Bells

In case you haven't figured it out by now, it is definitely Christmastime in the city! In addition to the various tree lighting ceremonies, I've also been to these fun holiday activities:

Stake Christmas concert. Turns out we have a REALLY talented stake. I was a little surprised when I saw the length of the program, I was expecting an hour of calm Christmas carols. But they went all out, it was 2 hours of both calm and fun Christmas carols- even the Grinch was included.


The looooong program. Good thing it was all good!

Elf Extravaganza. These girls are impressive- in addition to watching Elf (one of my holiday favorites!), we ate the four basic food groups: candy, candy canes, candy corn, and syrup. They crafted the 7 levels of the Candy Cane Forest out of candy canes and truffle cake pops, the Sea of Swirly Twirly Gumdrops out of gumdrops (of course!), and the Lincoln Tunnel out of Rice Crispie Treats. So Fun. In addition we also had spaghetti with syrup (they made up these spaghetti and egg quiche thing so it was edible- wasn't too bad actually!),  Funfetti buddies (like muddy buddies but with funfetti- yum!), and lots of candy.

Countdown. Guess what? I am excited to come home for Christmas!!! (No, I am not ready to move back yet!) So when you have no paper or anything crafty, this is what you get for your countdown:

 

Holiday Window Strolling. You have to go look at the department store windows if you're in NYC for the holidays. Of course. We started our little stroll at Macy's (which were some of my favorites- just because they were about Christmas in NYC :).

 



Stewart/Davis kids- remember re-enacting the escalator scene from Elf while we were at Macy's?

 

After Macy's we made our way to 5th Ave, which we followed until we reached Central Park. Here are some of the highlights:

Lord & Taylor. My other favorites.



New York Public Library. One of my favorite buildings. . . it just happened to be on the way :)



Saks.

Bergdorf Goodman. Crazy cool windows, but not very Christmassy.

 

 

As promised, I made it back to Rockefeller Center for pictures of the tree from the front view. . .

 

Rockin' around the Christmas tree

Of course I had to attend the Tree Lighting at Rockefeller Center. After I got off work I went home, bundled up, and headed down to the Rockefeller Center. . . along with masses of people heading the same place. I was getting there a couple hours early so the plan was to take a book, grab food on the way, and stake out a spot. Well, by the time I made it there it was dark (reading was no longer an option), and I didn't know where exactly I was trying to get to and in the process accidentally got shuffled into a spot where I couldn't leave to go get food. . . It was standing room only, my feet were killing me from working long hours the last couple weeks, and I was sick (on top of being hungry). Oh and it was freezing cold. So to be honest, I was kinda miserable.

Luckily I had my iPhone. What would we do without those these days? I entertained myself by texting people (my siblings always know when I'm stuck somewhere bored- like the laundromat), and looking up flights for going home for Christmas. It was a long two hour wait. . . but the show finally started. I wasn't close enough to see the performers (you had to get there while I was still at work for that), but I had a pretty good view of the screen and the tree. Even though I did not feel good at all by this point, it was fun to be in NYC listening to great performers singing great Christmas songs. Oh, and texting pictures and videos of Scotty McCreery (sp?) singing to my country loving (weirdos) extremely jealous sisters, haha.

Pre-lighting. (Had to snap this as we were moving)

Pre-lighting. Just waiting. . .

Making Callie and Jenny jealous.

In case you couldn't tell (ha, as if you could tell anything from this pic), that's Mariah Carey.

I'd never heard of Il Volo- the Italian trio, but they sounded amazing! I now have a Pandora station of their holiday music- and its a pretty good mix so far, I recommend it. Most everyone else performing actually sounded great too- I was impressed since you never know with live performances.

The moment that made it all worth it was the tree lighting itself. I have to admit it was good. It's just lights, but just being there with all those people and the music and the other Christmas lights and decorations around- and the GIGANTIC TREE!- made it magical :)

I was going to upload a video of the lighting for you, but it wasn't working and then it was taking too long. . . and patience is not a virtue I possess when it comes to blogs. So pictures it is!

 Unfortunately I couldn't go back past the spot where you get the straight on shot of the tree that night- the policemen were directing us all away from the area. BUT, I went back during my 5th Ave stroll the next week. . .

Deck the halls... or the streets

I was lamenting the lack of Christmas cheer in my apartment when my mom reminded me that the whole city of New York is decorated for Christmas. Good point :) It really is a magical time of year in the Big Apple. There are Christmas decorations and decorations happening all over, all the time. Including right outside my door... where they are selling Christmas trees!


Mmmm... Fresh whiff of pine tree when I walk in and out of my building :)

New York style Christmas decorating. If the scaffolding is going to be there indefinitely, might as well decorate it.

        See how the Christmas tree in the first picture is right outside my door? Yeah, well one day it got moved- to the door on the other side of the store in the picture. Think I noticed? Nope, tried to get into the building with the Christmas tree right outside the door. Couldn't figured out why my key wasn't working... then realized why and sheepishly made my way to my door.

 

I'd like to say that was the only time I've accidentally tried to get into the wrong door, but unfortunately I can't. Right next to my door is another one that looks exactly like it. And the inside looks exactly the same. Technically it is all one building from the front- there is a continuous facade on the street and only once you get inside do you realize there is actually a little alley between the buildings. Anyway, since it is all one building, the key is the same for both doors...I'm sure you can imagine where this is going. One day when I was again not paying enough attention (this is what I get for thinking while walking, apparently I can't multi-task), I walked into the building next to mine. The interior has the same finishes and is just a mirror image of my side of the building, so I didn't realize until I started up the stairs and they turned the wrong direction... Oops. But don't worry, my roommate has done the same thing. I'm sure there are plenty of others in both buildings that have done the same as well ;)

 

Now that you all feel better about yourselves, I'll make you jealous with all my fun NYC Christmas events... In the next blog posts... Coming up next: the Rockefeller tree lighting, 5th Avenue strolls, concerts, and movie parties- it has been a fun couple of weeks!

Winter's Eve

The holidays are here! Hopefully you all had a great Thanksgiving. I worked pretty much the whole day, but I can't really complain since I volunteered :) Figured if I wasn't at home, I might as well be making money!

I spent Thanksgiving morning working until the afternoon- caught a few glimpses of the balloons in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade since it comes right past the building where I work.



The empty bleachers- set up a week before the parade.

I had Thanksgiving Dinner Round 1 at work, and then as soon as I got off headed to Thanksgiving Dinner Round 2 with people from my ward. They were nice enough to fix a delicious meal and have everyone over who wasn't going home. Many thanks to them!

After Thanksgiving Dinner 2 I went back to work for another 12 hours. That's right, I worked from 8pm to 8am Black Friday morning. We were taking advantage of an empty store to start changing our features to Christmas displays. Needless to say, I took a good, long nap when I got home!

Subway was a little quieter than usual on Thanksgiving.

Today I attended the Winter's Eve Festival- apparently the largest winter/holiday festival in NYC (at least that's what the host said). The whole festival was taking place on the same road I walk home from work on, convenient I know. So I checked out everything as I was walking by, went home and warmed up then headed out just in time for the tree lighting at Lincoln Square. They had music at different spots along Broadway, and bands marching up and down the streets, food booths, all kinds of crazy entertainment, and lots of people. The streets were packed but it was so great to see everything busy with all the holiday music playing and trees lit up. I love the holidays :)

Before the tree lighting...

All lit up :)

Not a sight I expected to see in front of the church, and coming out the doors. I expected the church DVD's and even the free hot chocolate but I don't know what these things were!

I love the holidays :) There are more events this week and I'm planning to be there!

Beauty all around

For all the haters out there who think New York is just a big, dirty city- I challenge you to hate this :


Impossible, I know. This, my friends, is Central Park. In case you haven't guessed by now- by the fact that there are now 3 blog posts dedicated to the park- this is one of my favorite places in New York City. I've spent a few afternoons exploring there and according to the map I've hardly made a dent in the place ;) I think there is nothing else I have to say that the pictures can't say for me...

 

 

 

Love the color. Fall is my favorite season.



Yes, there's even a castle in Central Park

View from the castle