NYC at Christmas Time

Derek and I made an overnight trip over the weekend up to NYC, partly to celebrate my birthday, partly to see the Christmas décor and partly to re-visit his old hotel.  For years Derek managed the food department for The Lowell hotel on the upper east side of Manhattan.  New York always brings back lots of memories as I'd take the train into the city, meet him after work and either go out to eat, wander around or just head back to his house in New Jersey.

We had the best time and enjoyed the best weather, finally some actual Christmas like temps!



We drove up to New York early Saturday morning and did some wandering around Greenwich Village, picked up some of my favorite cupcakes at Magnolia Bakery, made a visit to the "Friends" apartment building (long time on my bucket list!) and grabbed some mexican for lunch at a little spot, mole, that was nicely decorated for Christmas.

hanging around outside of the "Friends" apartment building

I am not a coffee gal or even really a hot drink person but we had some time to kill and Derek was getting coffee so I grabbed a hot chocolate.  First and last red cup of the season.

I'll never turn down mexican for lunch.  Or a glass of sangria.

Post lunch we switched areas and moved over to the upper east side before strolling through central park and grabbing some photos of the fabulous skyline from the big rock.  We'd been to and through the park many times but never up to the rock.

The rest of the afternoon was spent walking up Fifth Avenue and checking out the light displays, admiring the tree, picking up some ornaments at Bryant Park's Christmas Village, taking Park and Madison Avenues to get back to the hotel to avoid the crazy crowds, picking up a second round of cupcakes at Baked by Melissa and popping into the container store for some final additions to the wrapping paper theme for this year.

It was great to be back at The Lowell.  Derek visited with many of his old work friends and we rested our worn out feet by the fireplace while sipping some cocktails.  The hotel even had a birthday cake waiting for me! Even though it was chilly I enjoyed taking in the view that our terrace had to offer.

Something I really wanted to was a carriage ride through Central Park, we'd done one over the summer before but it's worlds better during the holiday season.

We had time to spare before dinner so like every one else in New York we headed to see the tree lit up (I've never seen it as crowded as it was tonight!) and the other Christmas displays in the area as well as a glass of champagne at The Peninsula to kill some time and enjoy their live carolers.

We walked over to Mastro's for dinner.  We fell in love with this chain in California and always go when we are there.  It was so thrilling to see a Matros's opened in New York about a year or so ago.  I get the scallops appetizer as an entrée every single time (the sauce is ah-mazing) and Derek gets some form of steak and of course a few sides are split.

I think I was in bed just after 11 (can't hang like I used to!) while Derek visited downstairs with some of his old friends.  Overnight the food poisoning kicked in so we'll just skip to my birthday morning, I was so happy to wake up feeling much much better.  I took advantage of the quite large bathtub and we split some eggs benedict for breakfast by the fire and enjoyed some delicious hot chocolate.

We visited with some of our friends by the tree (where else) for a bit before heading for an amazing New York style pizza at a place with great Christmas decor and then each stopping to buy a little holiday treat for ourselves at Ralph Lauren and Tory Burch.

It was an amazing birthday weekend that went far to fast but I enjoyed every second of it.  Thank you, thank you, thank you for all the sweet birthday wishes yesterday! It made the "day after Birthday day" a little more bearable!