A Magical Trip to Christmas NYC

Rusty gave me the BEST PRESENT EVER this year.  A trip to NYC at Christmas time.  It was a magical whirlwind.  I apologize in advance for all the selfie’s.  There aren’t many perks of a traveling husband, but tagging along on business trips is certainly a big perk.  He had lots of meetings and work to get done, but I was perfectly content entertaining myself.  I shopped, ate, and visited all the fun Christmas displays around the city. 
First stop?  Dominique Ansel bakery.  I had to get my hands on a cronut—the hottest dessert in NYC this year.  Lucky for me (maybe), it was a FREEZING cold Monday morning and so the line wasn’t as long as I had heard.  I waited for about an hour to purchase my allotment of 2 cronuts  ($5 each).  The flavor changes every month and Dec was chocolate champagne with a dusting of orange sugar.  I wasn’t sure if it would live up to the hype, but it did.  SOOO Yummy.  In fact, so yummy that I considered standing in line again the next morning!  (But then reason set in)
Then it was off to visit all the window displays in the department stores.  My two favorites were Saks and Barney’s.  Saks windows told the story of the infamous Yeti who lives on top of the store and creates beautiful snowflakes.  It was a darling story, the windows were fabulous, and at the last window there was an iphone app where I created my very own snowflake that drifted across the window along with my name.  So fun! 
At Barneys I got to go on an interactive Sleigh Ride through NYC.  Some of Santa’s Elves are in the sleigh with you making hilarious commentary the entire time. 
I also shopped at the Union Square Holiday Market, got that cute hat you’ll see in all the pics, and tried about 4 different things for lunch :)
 
After a stop at the Plaza Food Hall and a little more sight seeing, it was time to go meet Rusty at the Empire State building.  He had arranged with a colleague for us to go up to her office on the 76th floor of the Empire State Building and watch the sunset.  Her office boasts a 360 degree view of the city.  It was absolutely amazing.  People pay good money for that view.  (I, myself, have paid at least 3 different times) It was so fun to take our time and not be hassled by crowds or security barriers.  We loved looking through their telescope.  And the very best part?  The windows in the office open completely.  We stuck our heads out of the 76th floor of the Empire State building.  What a trip!
 
After we had our fill of the view, we went to dinner at Toqueville.  Delicious.  Then it was off to the main event—The Radio City Music Hall Christmas Extravaganza. It exceeded my expectations, and my expectations were high!  We had so much fun watching the Rockettes, and using our 3D glasses to navigate one of Santa’s video games.  I’ll admit, I got a little teary eyed a couple of times.  I was just so darn happy to be there.  My favorite part of the show was when the Bible story from Luke 2 was presented. What a nice surprise to find Christ right in the center of all the NYC Christmas hoopla.  Wonderful. 


We ended the evening with a romantic stroll around Rockefeller Center.  And that was only Day 1!
  Day 2 started with Hot Chocolate and pretzel croissants at City Bakery.  I cannot say enough good things about that hot chocolate.  It is heaven in a cup.  So rich, decadent, and the homemade marshmallow puts it totally over the top.  (at $7 per cup, it better be good!)
Rusty had to get to work, so I took some time shopping down in SoHo.  I forgot that NYC is a notoriously late rising city, so not much was open.  After awhile I headed back to my old haunts on the Upper West Side.  A trip to Levain’s is always in order, and I wanted to see the oragami Christmas tree at the AMNS. 

  

By this time it was snowing pretty heavily.  I decided to take a stroll through Central Park down to Columbus Circle.  Nothing is more beautiful than Central Park in the freshly fallen snow. 

  

From Columbus Circle I took the Subway to Bryant Park where I enjoyed my favorite Holiday Market in the city.  I also enjoyed some delicious vegan sweet potato chili, and some churros :)

All too soon it was time to go to the airport. I was half hoping the snow would delay our flight and we’d have one more night.  But no such luck.  It was fun to get home to my kiddos, and I feel so lucky to have amazing friends to take care of them while all my Christmas Dreams came true.