Christmas in New York

3 great reasons to travel with a baby.......

1. Jump ALL the lines at the airports, moving directly to the front of the line.

2. Make a gazillion NEW friends by wearing baby in a front carrier so her pretty face and smile can be seen by everyone you walk by who then stop to oooh and aaah!!

3. Get FREE popcorn at an awesome store in Times Square AFTER it has closed, nonetheless (more about that later).

We spent 3 days in New York and packed in about 6 days of sightseeing. It was AWESOME!! New York is our most favorite place to visit. It reminds me a lot of England. The hustle and bustle, walking EVERYWHERE, markets, bakeries, tons of people. I LOVE it.

Day 1: We arrived in NYC Sunday night after an uneventful plane ride. The passenger next to me gave Bailee the 'Best Traveling Baby' award because he thought she was a wonderful traveler. Not a peep, only smiles and then she slept part of the time. Not bad for her first plane ride. That night we ate at a great restaurant named Maxies. The staff were wooed by the baby and when the waiter saw my empty plate he noticed a spot of pink in the chicken so he immediately took it back to the kitchen and didn't charge me for my $22 meal. There was so much food on the plate I just ate around it, plus it wasn't that pink so I hadn't thought to complain. He was an Indian gentleman who told us all about his family and children. Babies are such an ice breaker.

So later that night we went to see the store windows at Saks 5th Avenue and the tree at Rockefeller Center. The weather was so mild and enjoyable we only needed a jacket. Bailee LOVED the lights which were everywhere.

We stumbled upon an outdoor concert for The Carson Daley Show at Rockefeller where T.I. was performing. Had no idea who he was ( a rapper) but it sure was fun to get caught up in that crowd. After the concert we walked around some more taking in all of the sights and around 11ish we went to the movies to warm up and saw The Day The Earth Stood Still. Not a great movie and I ended up falling asleep. We later realised it was Sunday and probably wouldn't have gone to the movie if we'd remembered. Maybe thats why it was such a bad movie!! We finally made it back to our hotel sometime after midnight.

Day 2: Marc had meetings during the morning so Bailee and I went to get something to eat and explore the city. I got bundled in my turtleneck, coat and scarf. Hello....the high was 68 degrees that day. I was sweltering during my lunch and had to go back to the hotel to change. This was a perfect weather day so we stayed out all night again. We took a carriage ride through Central Park (my camera died, so no picture). Our carriage driver was from Turkey. We also took one of the bike taxis earlier that day and he was also from Turkey. He was a chemist but not able to work in USA and was learning English for 6 months before returning home. There are some really great people in NYC. We saw the windows at Macy's and shopped there.

We ate at an Irish Pub named O'Lunneys and had authentic English/Irish food. YUMO!

We went to The Empire State Building which we didn't have time to do on our first trip.

We went to the top (or close to it) where it was SO windy. What an amazing view. You can see my crazy hair in the picture. Around 10.30pm we went to Maxies again to get some cheesecake. YUMO! We called it a night just after midnight again.

Day 3: Big weather change today. We wore our thermals, boots, gloves, hats etc. The high was only 40 and it rained and snowed most of the day. We didn't make it to the TODAY show as early as we had wanted. We were just plain tired but we got out around 9.30am and caught Kathie Lee and Hoda. At one point they caught us on television but we didn't tivo it so we didn't see ourselves.

That's Kathie Lee and Hoda above Marc on the second floor. You can see them if you zoom in on the picture.

We ate at The Variety Cafe (thanks for the recommendation Penny). The food in NYC is amazing. Its all SO fresh and there are large buffets where you can take whatever you want and pay by the pound. No fast food joints there. There is so much variety which is Marc's favorite thing. We took a bus tour of the city.

I waited for the bus inside the NBC store when all of a sudden MATT LAUER walked right in front of me past the glass doors. Cool!!! We took the bus to SoHo and Little Italy where we ate lunch and canolis. We sat in an awesome Whole Foods Store to warm up with ceiling to floor windows up on the second floor. There was a view of the streets below. We LOVE to explore NYC and just take in all of the sights and sounds. It was exciting just to sit there with other New Yorkers.

It really began to snow that evening as we headed to the Rockettes Holiday Show at Radio City Music Hall. My friend, Penny, had told me about the show and that we could take babies in. It was excellent. The neatest thing about the show was the inclusion of The Nativity. They read from the scriptures and highlighted the birth of the Savior. It was really neat. We got out of the show around 10.00 and we went to eat dinner at The Olive Garden which overlooks Times Square.

Here comes the popcorn story. We went to an awesome store called Dale and Murphys the night prior and the young Puerto Rican girl in the store just made a huge fuss of Bailee. She asked her name and I told her Bailee. She said, Like the drink??? (Baileys Irish Cream). Anyways, we went back the last night at 11pm to get a few gifts but they had closed. I tried the door and looked sad and she came running up, unlocked the door and told us to come in. I told her we wanted a few bags and she said okay. I asked Marc for cash (as the till was being closed out) and she said, No, I'll give it to you. Another family walked by and tried to come in and we told them they were closed, the lady said, How come they let you in then? We just shrugged and pointed to the baby!

I had ladies and men all throughout New York cooing at the baby and especially the Puerto Rican ladies who would say to me (with their cool accents), Oh, God Bless...God Bless and then call their friends over to come and see the baby. I had a very large black man at the airport security line, who did not crack a smile until he saw Bailee and then pull out a picture of his 3 year old daughter to show Marc. It was so awesome!

We arrived home Wednesday afternoon in time to feed the kids and then head out to a Kurt Bestor Christmas concert. My old babysitter, Whitney, began watching my kids when she was Kenadee's age and is now old her 20's and has a toddler of her own, came to stay with her husband while we were gone. She had quite a time of it with sick kids, mostly Brinlee who ended up with an ear infection. Thanks Whitney and Colton. You guys ROCK!

So, overall we had an AMAZING time in New York. I wrote this post in such detail for my own memory so thanks for bearing with me. MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!