The Holiday's in Review

It was back to a more normal routine today, the last of my family left last night after a really great visit. Unfortunately my mom and youngest sister flew out of Newark and had to deal with all the craziness going on over a security breach. They barely caught their flight, their bags didn't but at least they made it home on time and weren't delayed for hours like so many others were. It wasn't the greatest way to wrap up the trip but we sure had a great time beforehand.We didn't do quite as much this trip as when my mom and sisters were here for spring break; I don't think anyone had the energy to do that much this time around. Mostly we hung out, ate good food and enjoyed each others company. I think we managed to see every major Christmas tree in the city (ok, probably not but it sure felt that way .... pictures below). In actuality, we probably did see all of the ice skating rinks in the city, at least all of the outdoor rinks.

On to the parade of trees...

Christmas day we opened presents, had our big Christmas meal and then went to see the Radio City Rockettes which was awesome. After the show we walked around Rockefeller Plaza and saw the tree and ice skating rink.The weekend after Christmas we did a little shopping and tried to see the Statue of Liberty but it was super crowded. Instead we went to the South Street Seaport and saw their gigantic tree. They also have the Big Apple Chorus who performs only around Christmas. They are a bunch of older gentlemen and they were really fun to watch.Later in the week we went to the holiday market at Bryant Park. Pretty much all of the parks put on holiday markets around Christmas. They have tons of vendors and usually some pretty cool stuff. This was my first time visiting the holiday market at Bryant Park and of course they also have a gigantic tree and ice skating rink.We didn't do much for New Year's Eve. We weren't brave enough to stand in Times Square in the freezing cold for 8 hours to watch the ball drop so instead we went out to dinner and watched it drop on tv. The next morning though we got up and headed to Central Park. We saved the best ice skating rink for last; me, John, and Mary Grace all went ice skating at Wollman rink. None of us had been ice skating in a long time, it was definitely an experience.On to our final tree, the Museum of Natural History's origami tree. Another really large tree, this time the tree was completely covered in handmade origami ornaments. They were really impressive! I told John we are going to learn origami and make ornaments next year, he isn't as enthusiastic as I am about this :)