Anniversary Weekend Part 1

As of June 24, 2012 I have been married to my best friend for 6 years! C-R-A-Z-Y, but not crazy bad. Just crazy how time flies (especially when you are having fun).  I'm excited to see what the next many years will bring!

For our anniversary this year, we decided to stay local and head to our old favorite stomping ground, NYC.  Ahh yes, the city that never sleeps, the BIG apple.  

We stayed in The Grand Hyatt, above Grand Central Station at 42nd and Lexington. I've stayed there before.  It's not one of the cheaper ones, but it's also not the most expensive.  It's also very convenient 4 blocks from 5th Ave 6 or so from Times Square. Just a hop on the 4, 5 or 6 to get down to Chinatown/Brooklyn Bridge. Plus, the hotel is nice and modern which I like. And...you have a view of the Chrysler Building, if you are on the correct side.  

King Size-upgrade-before Gary flopped on it! 

 Cozy little reading area, with random table in the middle, but it works.

 Flat screen, thank you and cute little lit shelves.  Behind the cabinets are a mini fridge and a safe. Closet to the left

 VERY important for me to have a clean bathroom. I get uber skeeved out if it's gross. I mean you are supposed to get CLEAN in a shower!

 We had lunch in Grand Central because we were starving.  Although I wish I had held out because there was a great street fair right outside of our building with all kinds of delis looking meats.

I chose to eat at Hale and Hearty Soups.  It is great, but a little intimidating.  Intimidating because the lines are long and you have to order quick or they get annoyed and people behind you do too. It kind of reminds me of eating at Pat's Steaks in Philly, order quick and don't be weird about it. I think Philly is more intimidating. Wit or Wit out?

 They chop it for you if you want. This was the small salad with corn, carrots, cucumbers, avocado and chipotle salad dressing. I was attempting a southwest salad just without the protein apparently.

 Gary loves falafel and schwarma

 P.S. This day was VERY warm. I almost didn't make it through the day.  It was the humidity that was killing me though. I can do heat, not humidity. Thankfully it thunder stormed and took some of that away.

Street fair- Spices- may be a little gross to be out in the open, but they were pretty.

 Mozzarella and sweet corn cake- y'all know I love cheese, but this was meeeh.  I felt bad for all those vendors sweating over the hot grills.

Anniversary Dinner: Thank you Living Social! 79$ for a 4 course meal and a bottle of white/red wine @ Nino's Tuscany Steakhouse by 58th and 7th. There were A LOT of living social users there that night. The food wasn't bad, the atmosphere was nice, wine was good, service was good (refilled my water plenty).

 We both started off with bruchetta as well as bread/oil

 Gary's appetizer and mine, of course with shrimp

Gary's homemade ravioli 

 Veal topped with prosciutto and mozzarella with fresh green beans and mashed potatoes(weird choice and those weren't very good).

 I felt kinda bad. Being a blogger I take pics of everything. And...since the restaurant was very dark I kept having to use my flash. This is why most of my food looks uber white and washed out. 

 Dessert: Gary got ricotta cheese cake (which wasn't as creamy as it would have been with say cream cheese or mascarpone)

Here's where I committed a dessert sin: I didn't finish my chocolate mousse(insert *gasp). It was extremely rich and delicious, but I was just too stuffed. One too many breadsticks I guess. 

Grand Central past midnight= less people and Beautiful (always is, but just easier to see everything without getting run over)

Traditions

Unlike my husband who can blog almost every day, I struggle.  It isn't that I don't have things to say, because I am quite a fascinating person:-)  It's just that I lack time.  With the whole Holiday season upon us I was baking and cooking almost every night, as well as doing last minute Christmas shopping and wrapping of gifts, mine and wrapping Gary's to give as well.

For some reason without fail before every vacation I get sick, Thanksgiving, I was sick and now Christmas and I am sick.  It could be because I assume that I will have tons of time to sleep in, so therefore I can now stay up late and let my health slip.  Apparently being around kids most of my days has caused my immune system to go wacky.  I don't usually pick up my kids illnesses, but before a break, you better believe I will come down with a cold of sorts.  With traveling, visiting friends and family and being sick I just haven't had a lot of time to blog.

I am a huge fan of traditions, well certain traditions, ok mostly traditions started by myself.  Every Christmas for the last 7 years or so one of my best friends, my husband and myself get together to exchange gifts and eat at Olive Garden.  Who doesn't like unlimited soup, salad and bread sticks?  We meet, engorge ourselves and unwrap gifts, some slightly more humorous than others.   Meg (my bestie) and Gary have a fun relationship.  They've known each other for 11 years, since our freshman year of college and I've known Meg since 3rd grade (you can do the math).  Gary and Meg are more like brother and sister, which is great, because who doesn't want their best friend and husband to get along so well?  This year, however, with traveling up to NJ before Christmas we couldn't stop at Olive Garden, much to my dismay, instead we went to The Cheesecake Factory.  Now, one cannot  complain about this place, I mean who doesn't love yummy food and of course, Cheesecake?! 

The hustle and bustle of Times Square

Someday I will stay here at The Plaza....someday.....

This is close to being as good as Italian Pizza

Another tradition that I love is one that Gary and I started our sophomore year of college: we go to NYC every Christmas.  There is nothing better than going to NYC at Christmas time, yes the cold can be pretty harsh and the crowds unruly, but truly, I LOVE IT!  In the past we used to go up a few weeks before Christmas and actually try and do our Christmas shopping there, that was a little much.  Now we go in and just walk around.  We usually go to Macy's, Times Square, 5th Ave (of course, I drool a little), Central Park, Saks and the tree at Rockefeller Center.  We always get nuts from those little Nuts 4 U stands, roasted almonds and as we are leaving the city I always get roasted chestnuts.  Some other favorites are Carnegie Deli- Nom Nom! and Grimaldis down under the Manhattan Bridge (DUMBO). If you are looking for good, sorry no Great NY style pizza than go there. It's a walk, but you get to walk over the Brooklyn Bridge and there are some great views from there. 








We've also bought a Christmas ornament in NY every year, usually we buy one from Saks, it's pretty much the only thing we can afford there, but then at least we get the snazzy snowflake bag.  We have also started going over to Bergdorf Goodman to buy ornaments, let's just say some day we will have a very expensively decorated Christmas tree.  However, until we get a bigger place the ornaments will just have to stay neatly packed away in their beautiful boxes.

I also want to make it tradition now to read the Christmas story together Christmas Eve, if we go to Christmas Eve service than I want to make sure as a family we read it together on Christmas day.  It is after all the whole reason for Christmas, not just the red and the green and the giving and receiving.  My first year teaching one of my students said "the best gift that we get at  Christmas is that Jesus came." Couldn't have said it better myself kid....brought a tear to my eye and joy to my heart.

What are some of your favorite Christmas traditions?