Thanksgiving in NYC

One of the staples of my Thanksgiving as a child was watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade.  I’ve always dreamed of going, and this year we finally made it!  Call it a really last minute anniversary/holiday trip.

We left Wednesday night on the red eye.  The late flight was genius on Zach’s part, due to the fact that the day before Thanksgiving is the busiest day of the year to travel.  There were no crowds at all at Salt Lake International, and security was a breeze!  We arrived in New York at 6:00 am and by a stroke of holiday luck, we got an early check-in to our hotel!  We ditched our bags and got to freshen up before braving the crowds for the parade.  We took the subway and soon experienced the pandemonium.  There were NYPD officers EVERYWHERE; blocking off exits in the subways, blocking off sidewalks to major roads.  After trying to push our way through the crowds of people, we decided to find a different route – besides, people are not so friendly when they think you are trying to finagle your way through to a better spot.  We knew we had to get to Central Park West, but it took us twice as long to bob and weave our way through back roads and cross streets.  We finally reached the park and found our friends, Morgan and Britton.  Britt had been there since 5:00 am holding a spot at the front of the crowd and they were kind enough to let us stand and watch with them!

The parade was a bast – definitely a highlight of our holiday season thus far!  It was also so great to visit with our friends, even though it was really quick!  Considering we had slept a total of three hours, we decided to go back to our hotel to get some rest before we ventured out again.  Our first stop?  Some delish pizza…

…and a soda break, naturally!

I suddenly felt an urgency that we had to go shopping before Black Friday hit.  I knew that it was Thanksgiving afternoon and nobody would be in the stores, they would be with their families!  Unfortunately, some of the stores in SOHO were closed due to the holiday, and the ones that weren’t were pretty packed.  I still felt comfort inside that we hit a few places before the madness of the next morning and Zach scored some killer suits!  He’s been wanting a new suit for Christmas and I was delighted that he found two he liked, of course, extra skinny fit!  I had a blast sitting in the mens dressing room on a glamorous sofa watching him try on his sassy new duds.

That night, for our official Thanksgiving Dinner, we ate at The Water Club.  It’s a spiffy restaurant on the East River, technically it is a boat.  It was a traditional turkey dinner with all the trimmings.  We gobbled up our meal and looked out at the city lights, and did our traditional Diet Coke and Coca-Cola Classic toast!  Zach even had a sweet splurge and ordered a personal pumpkin pie!

The next day, we decided to conquer Black Friday.  It wasn’t the traditional escapade with my Mother, aunt, and cousins, but it sufficed.  We got some pretty sweet deals and we even scored some free swag!  Once you were inside the stores, it wasn’t that crazy, but once you made your purchase and went OUT….it felt like a stampede.  Zach was a sport, and stuck it out with me for several hours.  He would never completely come out and admit this, but he loves to shop as much as I do!

We hadn’t eaten lunch yet when 3:00 hit, and decided to hit up a local deli.  We ate near the window and watched the people passing by.  We even had our first celeb citing!  We walked the long way back to our hotel instead of taking the Subway and shopped just a little bit more.  The only reason Zach was patient with the second round is that we stopped at Pinkberry half way through.  The weather was incredible:  an average of 62 degrees during the day!

We had a late dinner reservation at the Mercer Kitchen, and walked around SOHO the rest of the evening looking at furniture stores and little boutiques.

The next day we met up with Zach’s brother, Sean and his wife Siri and their three kids.  We met at the mecca of my fast food heart:  Shake Shack!

It only took about 20 minutes, but the line of people was incredible!  It wrapped half way around the entire park!

It was definitely worth the wait (in my opinion).  After we grubbed, we tried to get tickets to the Flyers vs. Rangers game at Madison Square Garden, but had back luck with tickets.  It’s too bad too, because the kids were decked out in their Philly gear!  Look how excited Connor was…

We decided to venture into Central Park instead and enjoyed the hustle and bustle of the crowd.

Then we parted ways with their cute family and went to our dinner reservation – our favorite place, Cafeteria!  We went last summer we were in town, and we couldn’t stay away from their famous mac n’ cheese!

Our last day, we took a car out to Jersey to the new Metlife Stadium for a Jets Game!  There were over 70,000 attending at the game…Zach’s version of Black Friday, haha!  I actually am very familiar with this NFL team, considering Zach and I watched a season of the Jets’ reality TV Show, Hard Knocks.  I am a big fan of the Jets coach, Rex Ryan!  We got amazing tickets on Stub Hub and got a firm idea of how loyal and devoted the Jets Fans are.

Meet Vinny, the biggest Jets fan alive.  Born and raised in Brooklyn, educated in every stat – every year – every player.  It was pretty intense.  He actually hit me in the face twice (on accident) because of a couple of outrageous calls by the refs!  After half time I went to get a soft pretzel and fruit cup, when I got back, Vinny was VERY disappointed in my food choice.  He yelled, “You come to Jets Stadium and you get a friggin’ FRUIT CUP!?  Was wrong wit you?”

The stadium was incredible, and better yet:  Jets won!

Going to NYC over Thanksgiving was kind of like the best of both worlds:  we got to enjoy the Thanksgiving Parade and then the day after Thanksgiving, alot of the Christmas lights were turned on around the city.  It was like being there for both holidays!  Four days is never enough in this city, and I don’t doubt if we both didn’t have jobs we loved…we’d stay there forever!

We couldn’t have asked for better weather, company, food, and memories.  No better way to celebrate three years together!

Back To Life – Back To Reality

It’s official:  New York in the fall is heavenly. We’ve only been at Christmas time and once in the summer, and I must say this is by far the best trip to the city we’ve ever had!  Now it’s back home, back to work, and back to real life.  Our flight didn’t get in from JFK until 2:00 am this morning (typical – the only thing I don’t love about this city is their horrible municipal airport!)  But when we did arrive home, it did seem a little more cheery to see our Christmas decor all set up.  Only a few more ornaments on the other trees and a bit of spray paint and I’m all set for the Christmas season!

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!!

Three Years

I have been swamped at work lately.  Some exciting news:  I got a new high profile client.  It MAY be an Italian sports car company….and it may rhyme with Perrari?

I have been working a lot of hours on this new project and have totally neglected my husband.  In light of my new client, and other various stressful projects, I had a hard week last week.  Somehow, he always makes me feel better…

Whether it is dressing up in Angry Birds attire and touring Walmart, or sending me sweet text messages – he makes my day…every day!

In other current events, he was a real champ and took my news like a man!  I took him to Chili’s and explained to him my situation:  We are having three Christmas trees this year.  He about fell off the booth seat!  He couldn’t fathom where we would even place three different trees in our house.  Luckily, he forgot soon after he got his Baby Back Ribs…that was my plan all along, you see.  The decorating process has begun!  Talk about from one extreme to another:  We didn’t even have a Christmas tree last year!  We have slightly upgraded in Christmas Spirit!

One room down, two more to go!

Yesterday was our official anniversary.  Zach surprised me and booked a couples massage at Beyond Spa (his sister’s spa in Layton).  So we ate a delicious steak dinner and sped up to Layton!  And of course, knowing us…we had QUITE the experience.

So we get into the “B” lounge, and the chick tells us to change into the robes she has provided.  So we strip off our duds and put on these plush robes.  I was completely comfortable and relaxed…Zach on the other hand…got a robe that was a LITTLE too small.  For some reason I got this amazingly comfortable oversized robe, while Zach was trying to stretch his out to cover up his goods.  We were laughing SO hard.  YOU KNOW HOW SMALL ZACH IS…so the fact that the robe didn’t fit well was even more hilarious.  He was tucking it in around his legs so nothing was exposed.  Once we finally get settled in, soaking our feet and lounging on the couch, we observe the delicious spread that they have left for us:  cheese, crackers, chocolate, sparkling cider, a bowl of grapes.  I got right into the cheese and crackers. (I have been eating healthy lately and haven’t had cheese in…months!)  Well, would you believe me if I told you that I spilled the crackers in my foot soak?  Yup, there they were…floating cracker bits all over in the water.  Like a foot soup.  Or a foot chowder, if you will.  Once again, we were laughing – probably disturbing all the other guests.  Last but not least, I had to explain to my masseuse when she came in that I had a lump on my back.  (Yes, I have this weird bumpy lumpy thing, most likely a pocket of fat tissue).  Zach laughed the entire time I was explaining to my chick that I have a “squishy thing” on my back, and not to be alarmed.

I am so in love with Zach.  These have been the happiest three years of my entire life.

Girls’ Weekend in the OC

I’ve said it before, but:  The guys go hunting for bucks, and the girls go hunting for deals (and spend our bucks).

We stayed at the same location as the year before and shopped at the Costa Mesa Plaza.  It is a pretty amazing mall, and I felt a little more familiar this year.  Every trip I am impressed with my sister-in-laws and their mad skillz with coupon clipping and deal finding.  I thought I was pretty geared up with my two coupons for H&M, Banana Republic, and Zara.  Turns out I got showed up hard core.  (For the record, I think kids clothing companies give better deals than other stores).

We shopped for two days, ate delicious food, stayed up late, and drank too many Diet Cokes.  I even had time to put a serious dent in my book.  Speaking of my book, did you see Rooney Mara in Vogue??  She is seriously stunning and I dig her lipstick.

I had a mission for this trip though:  #1 – Find Plumb/Eggplant pants, and #2 – Find a nice dress for family pictures.  Both were crossed off my list!

Once again, because I am a failure, I got zero pictures.  Actually, that’s not true:  I have about 6 pictures of me cuddling with Charlie (my baby niece) and one picture of me hugging a Justin Bieber life-size cardboard cut-out.  Not a very good media selection.  My sister-in-laws and my mother-in-law are a riot.  We laughed the entire time, and I have to say it has been my favorite Girls’ Shopping Trip so far!

Thanks Jeanene, Kristi, Katie T, Lori, Gina, Rachael, and Charlie for a fantastic trip!  I love you all!

Sign From Heaven OR…?

I think it was an honest-to-goodness miracle that Call of Duty MW3 came out this week.  How convenient that I am leaving for a Girls’ Trip and this game MAGICALLY came out this exact week??

Hopefully he will play all day and night ALL weekend while I’m gone and get it out of his system before I get home.

Until then, I will faithfully pin on Pinterest by his side in our office.  He must have known this lifestyle of non-stop gaming would take place, because when I got home I found a gorgeous arrangement of flowers waiting for me on the kitchen table.

Crafty devil.

Eclectic Weekend

Besides my little hiccup with Silvie, the rest of our week/weekend was pretty great.

I get to drive around a sa-weet new rental SUV for a couple of weeks until Silvie gets some new doors and other such repairs. She is black, so I have nick-named her Midnight.  We decided to take her for a spin during the first snow of the season as Zach and I drove it up to Ogden on Friday to go out for sushi with Zach’s sister and our brother-in-law.  That meant I got to cuddle with my niece Charlie.

After we went to see a flick at the new Centerville theater, Tower Heist.  It was pretty good, but the fact that they had gelato at this theater made up for the average movie.

Saturday, I received a special package from my boys at adidas Outdoor.  They seriously hooked me up for Christmas, and all the men in my family have been officially checked off my Christmas list.  THANK YOU!

After a fun filled day of cleaning house, watching the Utah game, and laundry…we set off for date night once again.  Arella, in Bountiful, is one of our local favorites for pasta and pizza.

Sunday night we had Zach’s parents over for dinner.  We love spending time with Mark and Jeanene, we always have great conversation and lots of laughs.  Aaaaaaand I didn’t burn anything, which is always good.

Overall, a successful and eclectic weekend.