Day 2 in The Big Apple

Today we were up and out of the hotel by 9:30 to get sightseeing!



But first, a few more shots out of our hotel window....the hotel across from us:
And a little city view:

We decided to start at 5th Avenue to check out the shops!

St. Patrick's Cathedral:

View of the side:

The Cartier store (this was my favorite outdoor decor):

Fendi and Tommy Hilfiger:

Armani:

Trump Tower:

Burberry:

We took a little detour from 5th and went up to 3rd to see Dylan's Candy Bar. Wow, this place was a candy heaven! Although it wasn't stroller friendly so Gabe stayed with Avery while I checked out the 3 story building! They had everything you can imagine! They had one area where celebrities picked their favorite candy and put it in an autographed box. I had to take a pic of the Yankees:

Our other detour was FAO Schwarz. We went in through some random side entrance we saw and thank God we did....when we left the store, the line to enter the store wrapped around the building and went almost all the way down the block! And the entrance we went in was blocked off so you had to wait in line. We got lucky because there was no way we would have waited. Anyways, the place was a mob scene-I have no idea how people shop in NYC because most stores we went into was wall to wall people. I don't know how you accomplish anything like that!

Here's a jellybean soldier in FAO:

A pic of the first floor craziness in FAO...again, it was a 3 story store.

When we left FAO, we passed Rockefeller Center again so I got another pic:

And I had to get one of my trooper in her pigtails!
When we left FAO, we stopped at Cafe Metro for lunch, which was pretty good. Then it was off to do more walking! We decided to go back to 5th Ave and work our way down to Macy's. Very close to Macy's was the Empire State Building...this is us right at it:

Family shot in front of the Empire State Building:

A view of it as we got closer to Macy's:

Macy's:

Macy's was pretty impressive inside. On 5th Ave, we really didn't go into too many stores, just looked at them from the outside. Macy's was decorated like you wouldn't believe. And the store is HUGE. It's 9 floors full of shopping and each floor is probably bigger than any Macy's you've been to. It's insane. This is the entrance (see all of the people?!):

The ceiling decorations (just one small section...the entire ceiling is like this):

We decided to take Avery to see Santa while at Macy's....little did we know it would take us an hour and a half to see him!! And the line to see him and the way they had it configured throughout the store was pretty impressive...it went through office areas and wound around so many times-it was amazing! And in the end we found out there is more than one Santa working (ssssh!). Here is Gabe and Avery waiting in line:

Avery and I in line:

Finally within a few minutes of seeing Santa! At his train!

Inside the train:

Once you passed through the train, you entered The North Pole-more winding lines to wait in! Gabe, Avery and the tree:

A tree they had set up with a train around it:

Needless to say, when we made it to Santa, she didn't want to sit with him. So, we got a family photo of all of us with Santa with her just about ready to have a meltdown! Of course we didn't get one with our camera!

On our walk back, we hit up a bakery I spotted for some dessert later:

Can I have one of these for my next birthday?!

Then we went to dinner at Daniela Restaurant which was very good. After that, it was back to our hotel...

Like I said, we left around 9:30am and got back probably after 7pm. We did so much walking...I tried to map it out and it was at least 5miles! To give you an idea, we started at our hotel (Broadway and 48th) then made it to 5th and E60th (with some detours as well) then walked to Macy's with is at 34th, then back to the hotel. Avery was great being in her stroller most of the time and we were pretty beat by the time we got back!

New York State of Mind

Today we left for a weekend in New York City!

Gabe has been numerous times, but never for the holidays. I have NEVER been...can you believe it?! Gabe had enough hotel points saved up that our room would be free, so we decided to experience the Big Apple for Christmastime!

Our flight left around 11:45am so we were in NYC by 1pm. Of course it took us about an hour and a half to get to our hotel (crazy, right?!) which was right in Times Square. We got up to our room and I had to snap a few shots of our view:
Looking slightly to the right:
Straight ahead down below:

We didn't even unpack...we just put Avery in her stroller and decided to walk around! We had to stop by the tree in our hotel lobby:

It was FREEZING out! We did a good amount of walking, but had to duck into places here and there to warm up a bit. Avery was very excited to see these guys:

And even more excited: (have I mentioned her Elmo obsession lately?!)

Cool huge Xmas lights:

A shot of Radio City Music Hall:

Where The Today Show is taped:

One of our destinations...Rockefeller Center and the tree!! And no, we did not get to see it at night.

The skating rink:

Avery was quite the trooper and napped in her stroller. I can say she has NEVER done that (well, except when she was a newborn)...I think it was out of pure exhaustion because it was way past her naptime and we didn't stay at the hotel for her to sleep.

This is right outside of our hotel (hotel would be directly to your left):

Another huge billboard right by our hotel:

Right outside of our hotel...our hotel is at the far right of the picture:

The opposite end:

Gabe and Avery in Times Square:

Phantom:

One of our warm up places was Toys R Us (Avery missed it-she was napping!)...and this huge ferris wheel is set up inside of the store! It's crazy!

After walking awhile, we went to John's Pizzeria for dinner. It was very good! By the time we finished dinner, we headed back to the hotel and got Avery to sleep then we followed shortly after. I'm guessing we walked around for about 4 hours or so and like I said, it was really cold out so we did the best we could with the circumstances!

Sausage Snack Wraps

My family makes these a lot for parties, but I've never made them myself. Again looking for something different to make, I tried them are they're very easy and were a huge hit at the party! I forgot a photo so I'm sorry for that!

Sausage Snack Wraps
2 cans refrigerated crescent dinner rolls
48 fully cooked cocktail smoked sausage links/hot dogs

1. Heat oven to 375.
2. Separate dough into 16 triangles. Cut each lengthwise into thirds. Place sausage on longest side of each triangle. Roll up to opposite point. Place on ungreased cookie sheet.
3. Bake 12-15min or until golden brown. Serve warm with ketchup and mustard.

Notes: I used smoked cheddar sausages and they were good. The whole cutting the triangles lengthwise into thirds made no sense-the triangles were very mishapen when unrolled and no matter how I cut them, I rarely had a long end and a pointed end. But I just rolled them up and did it-they still tasted good!

Chili Curry Cashews

I got this recipe from a patient at work a few years ago. I never tried them out but wanted something different for my ornament party, so I thought I'd give it a shot. And they are SO good! If you like cashews, these are addicting!

Chili Curry Cashews
4 cups of cashews (unsalted)
1 egg white
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp curry
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp salt

Beat egg white until stiff peaks form. Stir in cashews. Spread on baking sheet and sprinkle with spice mixture. Bake for 1 hour at 225.

Notes: I bought salted cashews by mistake and used 1/4 tsp salt instead and it turned out fine.

A Festive Weekend

For the first weekend in December, it was quite a festive one!!

Last weekend, we went out and got our Christmas tree. We put it up last weekend, but it was quite the project to get it all decorated. What happened was that I bought new lights to put on it and 1 of the 3 boxes I bought were the wrong kind of lights. So we couldn't put ornaments on until I bought new lights. Since my only day off this past week was Friday, that was the first time I could go out and find any. Luckily Target had the ones I needed so the lights went up Friday afternoon. Friday night after Avery went to bed, we put the ornaments on the tree. Doesn't it look nice? I will say that Avery has been pretty good about the tree so far. She ignores the ornaments unless you point them out to her. Then she'll pull them off of the tree. But so far, so good....the tree is still standing!

Yesterday I did a lot of running around and preparing for a holiday party I hosted today. Then last night we had Gabe's work Christmas party at the Bausch and Lomb Wintergarden. They've had it there the past 3 years and it's pretty nice-limited open bar, food stations, and casino night. Unfortunately we didn't win any prizes (and haven't the past 4 years either!), but we still had a nice night out.

Yesterday Avery also sported her first set of pigtails! At Target on Friday I bought some rubber bands to try out. And with my luck, Avery is obsessed with tails ("Ta!"-Jerri's tail, my ponytail). So yesterday I said to her, "Avery, can Mommy put tails in your hair?" and she sat there and let me do it. When I showed her in the mirror, she got the biggest smile on her face and said/signed "MORE!" It was too cute! Now we just have to get Daddy doing pigtails for her! I will admit that they make her look so much older though!

"Show me your teeth!"

Today I hosted an ornament party at my house. This morning I was busy running around and preparing for that (some recipes to come!). The party started around 3:30 and lasted until around 6. It was very nice and despite the snowy weather, I think all but 4 people showed up! So as far as holiday parties go, I think we're done with them for this year already (well, besides family stuff on the actual holidays).

Ketchup? Yes, Please!

Last night we tried giving Avery ketchup. Now, this isn't the first time she's tried it. Last week I put some on her tray when she was having a hot dog and she wanted nothing to do with it. In fact, she got mad that it was on her tray and I had to wipe it off!

Last night we had burgers and fries so of course we had the ketchup out. She loves playing with the bottle and kept wanting it and wanting it open. So Gabe put some on her tray and showed her how to dip her burger and fries into it.

And...she was hooked! She kept saying "more!", "more!" even though she had more than enough on her tray.

Luckily it was bath night so I didn't care too much when she played with it. She was having a ball!

Here she is with it all over her-arms, face, etc.... I tried getting another shot of her hands because they were coated-she was rubbing it all over like it was lotion or something!

Dipping her french fry:

And good ol' fingerpainting with it! She was eating it right off of her finger!

So we'll see what she thinks of it the next time we give it to her, but yesterday it was a huge hit!

Back in the Groove

For the past 2 months, things at work were slow, so my boss let me be a little more flexible with my schedule. Which means I cut down to 2 days a week instead of 3 days.

Well, this week I'm back to my old schedule...3 days a week.

And to top that? Two girls called in sick today so I got called in to work! So now I'm working 4 days in a row this week. And after being used to 2 days? It's rough. Today was the end of day 3 and I'm beat. And I still have a full day ahead of me tomorrow. I seriously feel like crashing right now-I'm so tired!

But, I'll make it through! I think I can, I think I can....