Travels with Amy and Dave: Christmas in New York City!

Our niece Gillian, a born and bred native Californian decided to go clear across the US and attend college in New York. Long Island to be specific. Her mom, my sister Tracie had said 4 years ago that she wanted to celebrate a Christmas in New York and lo and behold Gillian notified us all she'd be graduating in December of 2011. We made our plans well in advance and decided to go in early enough to celebrate with Gillian and spend the holiday in the city. My sister Sherri resides in Central New York and planned to take the train and join us. Her son; our nephew Matthew also a resident of New York State but currently living in Port Chester, NY also took a train and joined us.

So we packed up and off we left Texas for New York. Since my niece graduated from Stony Brook University which is located in Long Island, NY we decided to take some time and catch up with a dear college friend of mine, Darlene. We arrived on the 2st of December and spent the night with Darlene and her girlfriend Bonnie. They made us a lovely holiday dinner and we spent the night with them.

The next morning Darlene fed us THE most amazing Long Island bagels we had ever had for breakfast. We spent the day with her and her family who I haven't seen since our wedding. We had a lovely lunch together, I got to meet her niece Paige and catch up with all her family.

That evening we drove to East Setauket, NY and met up with my sister and family to have Gillian's graduation dinner at Raga Indian Restaurant. Here's the family at dinner and Gillian at graduation.

Congratulations Gillian!

Dave and I took the train from Long Island to Manhattan the next day. My sister and her family had a rental car so they drove but Dave and I wanted to experience the train ride. After we arrived we checked in to the W New York. We got a room with a single bed! I told them in advance we needed two beds but they were at sold out capacity so they brought us a roll away. That was all fine and good but go nervous as we wondered where our nephew would sleep as Sherri was bunking with us. When he arrived he camped out on the floor and we had a tight but cozy fit of four folks to a very tiny, intimate room.

We had promised our friend Matt that we'd have dinner with him that evening before a show. We met Matt earlier in the year at our friends Claudette and Darren's wedding. We told him we were coming to New York for Christmas and that we'd love to see him and have dinner. He had offered up several incredible dining options and the one we decided on was Bond 45 an Italian steakhouse that is situated in the theatre district. Here are Dave and I at dinner.

That evening we had tickets to the Book of Mormon at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre. It was incredibly irreverent and funny. No pictures allowed but I managed this shot!

That's actor Josh Gad and Andrew Rannells on stage who were incredible! It's a must see while in New York.

The next day we all got up and met for breakfast at Barney Greengrass. The restaurant was featured in five scenes of the movie "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close". It was tasty! We spent the remainder of the day on foot checking out landmarks of New York and seeing the sights. We met up at Grand Central to welcome nephew Matthew to town. From there we checked out the various vendors and continued on foot for more. We went to Barneys where we toured Lady Gaga's Holiday Workshop.

The Workshop is the retailer's in-store holiday shop, conceived, designed and christened by Lady Gaga – 5,500 square feet of bright colors, crazy shapes and a gigantic cartoon statue of the superstar herself in a pinup pose surrounded by jagged mirrors and sitting atop thousands of black plastic discs.

For Christmas Eve dinner we ate at the Peking Duck House. A restaurant that appears in the movie "A Christmas Story". You all remember the scene where those pesky bloodhounds bust in and destroy their Christmas turkey promoting the family to go out and have Peking duck instead. Deck the hars with bawrs of hawry Fa-ra-ra-ra-ra.

Here's the chef deboning the duck!

Here are some great shots of the holiday decorations at night.

On Christmas day we walked over to the World Trade Center grounds and checked out the progress of the 9/11 Memorial. Construction is progressing along!

On Christmas Day we had an early dinner at the Rock Center Cafe at Rockefeller Center. We had a lovely dinner and we're able to walk out afterward to the the Prometheus statue and the infamous skating rink.

On Monday we met up with my cousin's cousin Debra and her husband Joe. They have lived in New York for years and were kind enough to meet us for lunch AND give us a foodie tour of the Lower East Side. We began our day of eating with lunch at Big Daddy's Restaurant located on the Upper East Side. Big Daddy's is a hip 80's styled diner where massive burgers, crispy tots, and thick milkshakes reign supreme. Here is the group at lunch.

So check out this incredible list of the yummy places we hit up all day. Yonah Schimmel Knish Bakery, Economy Candy, Sugar Sweet Sunshine Bakery, Kossar's Bialys, and The Pickle Guys. What an incredible tasting day!

That night we had tickets to the Rockettes Radio City Christmas Spectacular show. But before the show itself Dave and I made our way to the Waldorf Astoria Hotel and had a cocktail in their bar. Well...Dave had a beer and I had a cocktail.

We then walked over to the show but before doing so stopped at St. Patrick's Cathedral, light a candle and viewed the Christmas creche. This photo intrigued me. A dog in the manger? Where is the story there?

I understand that a monsignor at the famous St. Patrick’s Cathedral statue of his dog a new home in the Nativity scene, alongside Jesus. Msgr. Robert Ritchie placed a 25-inch statue beside the figures of Jesus, Mary and Joseph in the sanctuary's Christmas creche. He was quoted as saying “Didn’t the shepherds have dogs to help herd the sheep?”

Once we arrived at Radio City we had some free time before the show and we got to have a drink and see the beautiful art deco decor of the venue. I just love how it looks inside.