It's been a busy week/weekend full of Christmassy fun! On Wednesday we had snow showers. Kids up here get just as excited to see it falling down (or sideways, as the wind was fierce).
None of it stuck to roads or sidewalks, but it was pretty to see on the grass and trees.
New transportation method: I took the East River Ferry on Friday over to Brooklyn to pick up a Christmas gift. It picks up right behind my school and was a quick, easy trip over to Greenpoint. Not all that exciting, but I had to document it.
Matt got some good news this week - he got a promotion to Assistant Vice President of his group! I'm a proud wife : ) We went to a new and delicious Italian restaurant, Giano Restaurant, in the East Village to celebrate. Our food was awesome, as was the atmosphere there.
Saturday marked the arrival of Santa-con, the day when thousands of Santa-ly clad people descend on the bars in Manhattan to drink shamelessly and vomit on the sidewalks. For the rest of us, it's a day to stay inside and avoid the crazies. I feel sad for any kids that were out - they must have been shocked and disappointed. We were able to do avoid the madness, mostly, because I hosted a cookie exchange for work friends. It was fun. I fell down on the job of taking a picture of this event - I was too busy hosting. But, I made some new recipes that turned out nicely, including some holiday sangria that I plan on making again very soon -- yummy!
After the party, Matt and I headed out to meet up with more friends and hang out for a while around town. I snapped some shots of the holiday hooligans. They must spend a lot of money on these costumes...some were pretty elaborate.
In the evening, we went to some friends' ugly Christmas sweater party on the upper west side. Matt and I bought some sweaters for the occasion:
Not entirely ugly, but definitely not going to get us on the 'nice' list. Forgive us Santa and Jesus.
We had fun meeting new people, playing some games, and eating some more. At one point, I turned to see Matt surrounded by a whole bunch of guys. I didn't know what was going on, but no punches or foul words were being used, so I got closer. Upon further inspection, he was giving a tutorial of how to tie a bow tie...I thought that was so funny. All those Yankees had no clue.
On Sunday afternoon, we braved Fifth Avenue to see some of the holiday windows. I have never seen them in person, and I always had the impression that they were more whimsical or kid-centric than these were. I liked the ones at Tiffany best.
Saks had a cool light show that projected on the side of the storefront. There was a line wrapped around the building just to see the windows. I thought they were kind of "eh". We got to see the tree at Rockefeller Center (from a distance). There were SO many people!
We had one more holiday party on Sunday evening. This time it was at our minister's apartment for the 20s/30s members. Man, oh man, what an apartment! It had sitting rooms and a real fire place and an awesome kitchen and it was huge. There were 55-60 people and we weren't crammed in. We met more really interesting, nice people. We ate and drank and talked a lot. We really like this church for it's people and its "pray hard, play hard" kind of attitude.
This week is busy, busy, busy!! At school, the whole first grade is creating our own farmers market on Friday, so there's tons to do to get the kids ready for that. We also have an author's share and a school sing-along on Thursday. So, lots of events. Plus, we have to get everything ready for leaving town on Friday. We are So ExCiTeD!!! I can't wait to get back to see our families. Safe travels to others who might be traveling this week or during the weekend!
Until next week...
Anna
