Christmas Time in the City, Part 1

Every year my mother and I spend the first weekend of December in NYC, and it is by far my favorite tradition we share! There is nothing better than 5th Avenue windows, the Rockefeller tree and a good broadway show to put you in the Christmas spirit!

This year Concetta and Christie decided to once again joined us on our mother - daughter weekend. The second I stepped off the plane on Friday, I immediately felt a sense of relief. The stress of work and life have seemed to build up over the past month so a weekend in the city with my mom, best friend, and her mom was exactly what I needed.

After juggling two bags, a purse, and two jackets, I hobbled over to the cab stand, caught a cab to our hotel (the same one my mom has been staying in for over 20 years on her annual trip), dropped off my bags, and jetted off to Bergdorf's for some shopping R&R. The sheer beauty of BG's always seems to amaze me, and not having to navigate through hundreds of people always seems to make it more enjoyable. I had a few hours before I had to meet mom and Christie at Saks, so I walked around the store in awe and made sure to leave with enough time to take in a few christmas windows and get a glimpse of Rockefeller center before our set lunch date.

Bergdorf Window

Tiffany Windows

Concetta arrived around 3 o'clock so, in order to get ready for our night out, we all met her back at the hotel. When Concetta and I were younger we used to take this trip with two other mother daughter couples and sometimes, when we got annoyed with everyone else, would choose to make a bed and sleep in the closet. My mother has stayed in the same room every year since our closet beds, so we decided we would test our old space out the second we stepped in our room.

We still fit!

Ten two outfit changes and a little hair straightening later, we were finally ready to start our night.

We started off by visiting the new 9/11 memorial. Tickets to the memorial are free to the public, but must be booked in advance. I booked ours back in October and chose 5:30PM, in order to insure we would see the memorial lit up. It was truly an incredible, emotional, and surreal moment to be surrounded by so many names of those who had lost their lives, and many who had sacrificed theirs to save others.

9/11 Memorial

9/11 Memorial

We finished the memorial a little earlier than expect and deceided to head somewhere nearby, with a view of the memorial, before catching a cab to dinner. The W hotel was only a block away and, after Jon and my great experience in LA, I was ready to give the NYC location a try. What a perfect choice! One delicious drink later we were on our way to dinner at The Spice Market.



Concetta and I at the W

Mom had booked our dinner reservations over 3 months ago, and was able to reserve a private room for us to eat, drink and be merry :). We had a wonderful time sharing stories and trying so many delicious dishes. Lentil chips from The Spice Market? divine. We were not quite ready for the fun to end so we walked around the meat packing district, peered in Alexander McQueens storefront and had post dinner drinks at Buddakan before calling it a night.

Our table at The Spice Market

It was, for sure, another amazing first day in the Big Apple.