The Big Apple

Disclaimer: My mom doesn't like slide shows on blogs because she feels she doesn't really get to look at the pictures because they are always moving; therefore, this will be a really long post filled with too many pictures. I love you, Mom! (PS - My mom, while we were gone for the week, managed to potty train Anna Claire!! Way to go, Gigi!!!)
Brad and I returned home yesterday from a purely delightful trip to NYC! We've never been to New York at Christmas, and wow! it was simply magical! We stayed the first night at the Marriott Marquis, and our room had a wonderful view of Time Square.

Since the last time I was there, M&M World has opened in Time Square. Love it.




While walking back to our hotel the first night, we passed the funniest place in Time Square. There is a facility sponsored by Charmin toilet paper, and well, this lady was more than happy to tell you all the wonderful things this place had to offer (20 restrooms that were cleaned after each use, a place to have your picture taken with the Charmin bears, etc)! Seriously?
Here we are at one of the many Christmas trees in the hotel:
The whole city was decorated....here's a sampling:




Macy's at Christmas:




Brad bought me a lovely new necklace from Tiffany's for my birthday! Here I am being a total geek with my little blue box in front of the store. I couldn't resist.

We also stayed with my friend, Chris, and his wife, Amanda. We had so much fun hanging out with them! We tried some incredible restaurants like Max Brenner's and Virgil's. If ever you are in NYC, you need to try these two places....yummmy! We also went to see the Rockefeller tree. Wow. Visit Chris and Amanda's blog where Amanda wrote up a wonderful recap of our time together!





Bloomingdales at Christmas:



Our last night in the city, we had tickets to see A Prairie Home Companion - Brad's favorite radio show, hosted by Garrison Keeler. Well, we had center balcony seats,
3rd row. We were early to the show and sitting in our seats, when the theater manager came to us, saying that some people had cancelled their tickets and he needed to fill the seats. We ended up sitting on the 6th row, center isle! Brad was elated!