Stay-cation with no place to be

Patrick and I really lived it up the last week of December. We decided not to travel again this Christmas, but rather we enjoyed a little stay-cation in NYC. Pat's work was closed the last week of December and I took a week of vacation so we could just relax and veg. And VEG we did. 

Without knowing it we started we went on a little "food tour" of NYC; however, this was not your typical city-food-tour of exotic eats or unique restaurants, rather, we sought out the best chain restaurants the city has to offer that are common in the West Coast, but scarce here in this East Coast city. 

Prior to this week we always felt a little guilty eating at a chain restaurant when we live in a city that is known for their unique eateries; however, during this stay-cation we over came this guilt and just embraced all that these restaurants have to offer; my favorite being an ABUNDANT amount of space.  It was so nice to walk into a restaurant and be seated right away because there were more than enough tables. We were always seated in a booth that was comfortable and had enough room for us and all our belongs. We did not feel the need to eat really fast because there were more than enough seat available. It was nice to not be seated a foot away from another customer but rather we weren't even able to hear what the other customers were talking about because they were a few tables away. Needless to say, this chain-restaurant-food-tour was much needed to rejuvenate us from the over crowded and unpredictable. 

Everyday we would sleep in to our hearts content and around noon or so we would make our way to Panera, Outback Steak House, Olive Garden, or California Pizza Kitchen. Let's just say, we are embracing this life without responsibility. 

Pat also received a new i-phone for Christmas from my parents. 

He has become quite the phone-photographer with Montee being his prime subject. 

Christmas {2011}

Merry Christmas! I hope everyone got as spoiled as I did this Christmas, because really, that is what Christmas is all about? Getting awesome presents, right? ha  Juuuuuuuuuuust kidding, but it certainly doesn't hurt.

Christmas morning started off the right way, by going to church and remembering our Savior and his birth. We were lucky that Christmas was on a Sunday this year because it made it so much easier to remember the true meaning of Christmas as we sang hymns of his birth and were able to reflect on all our blessings that come from the Savior. 

However, after church came the presents!

This Christmas, I didn't have any "surprise" gifts, but that didn't matter because the anticipation of actually being able to open and use my gift was all I needed for me to get giddy several days prior to the big day. Pat got me my dream lens: A Canon 24-70mm f/2.8. 

It was the first gift opened on Christmas day so I would be able to use it ASAP. 

Here is the first picture taken:

I know what you thinking, because Pat said it himself, "I can't even tell the difference." But trust me, there is a huge difference and I am so happy about it. 

I don't know if you know this, but Santa doesn't deliver gifts to adults. I thought this was a shame and decided to start a tradition where Pat and I buy each other stocking stuffers. On Christmas Eve, Pat and I headed to Target and went our separated ways for a half hour while we each picked out $15 worth of stocking stuffers for the other person. (Side note: As we were walking home from the Target in East Harlem in broad day light, we saw an ambulance pull away from the sidewalk we were walking on. As we approached the area the ambulance departed from, we saw a huge pool of blood that we actually had to walk over in order to pass. At that point I started to re-think our decision to walk home). Anyways, my stocking was filled mostly with my favorite things, candy and food. However, there was also a pack of chap stick (which I am in constant need of because I usually lose it on the first day of purchase) and a Rudolph nose. Pat's stocking had Super Hero drinking glasses and a book of games. This is definitely a tradition that will stick for years to come. 

Next was Pat's big gift, a leather jacket--also not a surprise, 

but he was very happy to finally be able to wear it. 

I also got beautiful pearl earrings from my in-laws. The amazing thing is, is that I have been really wanting and needing new earrings. I always buy the cheap H&M earrings that seem to tarnish after a few days, so I am super excited about having some nice pearl earrings that go with everything. 

We both received other gifts from my parents which, as always, was SUPER generous. However, the prize for my most unique gift goes to my brother Justin and sister in-law, Jannah. 

You see, I come from a family with 5 kids, so buying gifts for each person would be a little fiscally difficult. To remedy this problem, we pick names every year of the family we will give gifts to. This year, we were lucky enough to be picked by Justin and Jannah and we were blown away by what they got us...

ROLLER SKATES!

It turns out when you give someone roller skates you not only give them something to put on their feet, but you give them an experience! And that is exactly what we got. As soon as we could, we headed out the door with our new skates. Apparently, we have a street hockey rink a few blocks away that worked perfectly for us to show off our God-given-roller-skating-talent. 

We also found out it's a little hard to take "timed" pictures of ourselves while on roller skates.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Merry Christmas Postcard {2011}

It's Christmas time, so do you know what that means? An over abundance of Christmas cards! However, in my case, it's Christmas postcards. It's funny because every year I make these, I never think I will have enough pictures to fill the bubbles because I can never think of anything fun we did. Yet, once I go back through our pictures I actually end up having a hard time narrowing all the pictures down to just 16. Ha! I guess we do live pretty fun lives. 

Once again, I wish we could send a hard copy to everyone, 

but since this isn't fiscally possible, a virtual copy is just as good and way more GREEN! 

The Mattsons come to NYC

 

One of the best parts about living in NYC is that it's a destination for many, which means we get to see a lot of our friends all year long without having to make the trip ourselves!

My best friend, Meghan, and her hubby, Matt Mattson, were visiting her home state of New Jersey for Christmas. They were nice enough to visit us for 21.5 hours (yes, every minute counts when I only get to see them maybe once a year).

Originally, I wasn't going to be able to take the day off of work while they were here, but I finagled myself another vacation day, and I am so glad I did because it was a blast to be able to chill with my favorite  people in the whole wide world for a day.

The adventure started after work on Wednesday, when Pat and I met Meghan and Matt, at Red Bamboo, a well reviewed vegan restaurant in Greenwich Village. Meghan has been vegan for a few years now, but I am still totally oblivious to the whole lifestyle and food selection. So, when I was searching for a good place for us to eat, of course I went to yelp and was able to find this very well liked restaurant. However, when I was looking over the menu I was totally confused because almost all the entrees had meat in the title. For example, some of the entrees are: "BBQ Ribs", "Curry Chicken", "Sesame Beef", and "Fish and Chips." To make sure that there was a vegan option for Meghan, I called the restaurant and asked if they had any vegan entrees. The person the phone was a little confused and said everything they served was either vegetarian or vegan. Those of you, who are familiar with these types of restaurants, are probably thinking I am a total idiot, but I had no idea that all these options were simply fake meat. Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnyways, the food was actually really good and tasted SOOO much like real meat. I got the Buffalo Wings and they even put a little wooded stick in the middle of the meat to act like a bone! HA!

After dinner we went to Rockefeller Center and then walked and saw the Christmas window displays on 5th Avenue. While walking on 5th Avenue we had an unexpected adventure that I will post about later on, because it deserves a post all of its own, but I definitely think it was the highlight of our 21.5 hours together.

The next day was a casual day where we ate had Ovest Pizza again and just strolled around Chelsea until they left us. :(

We randomly saw a high school friend, David Martin, while walking on the High Line.
I am always blown away when stuff like this happens in such a big city.
The world really is a small place.

The sign of true friends is when you don't do anything but still have the best time. 

Christmas Party Spectacular

Remember this couple from the French Party this past June? Well, Kimberly and Ryan are at it again by throwing a Christmas Party that Pat or I will ever forget. 

When I received the invite to attend this party I was super excited, and with the mysterious meeting place being at the 96th Subway stop on the west side, I knew this wasn't going to be your normal mix and mingle gathering. 

Just as I anticipated, once everyone had assembled Ryan proceeded to tell us that we were going to be distributing the "White Elephant" gifts, that we had all brought, to random people on the street, as we made our way back to their a apartment. The "game" was, that we would walk along the side walk until someone found a person that they thought would enjoy opening a gift. Once that person was approached and congratulated on being selected, everyone would line up in a line and hold their gift in front of them. The lucky person then could pick any gift they wanted and open it in front of us. After they opened it we would all cheer, wish them a Merry Christmas and start the search for our next lucky victim. 

I can't tell you how fun this was, and of course being in NYC we got some pretty avoidant responses when we approached someone. They couldn't understand that we were not selling anything or that there were no strings attached to the gift. We selected some pretty awesome people though, from a little Hispanic boy in a barber shop to an elderly black lady who was out for a stroll.

I think my favorite person we selected that night was a lady with her little boy. When we were explaining the process to them and congratulating on them on being the lucky winners, the lady was a bit confused and asked us if we belonged to a church. We really didn't know how to answer, because we all belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Later-day Saints, but this was not a church function. So, we all hesitated and said "Well...we are all from the same church but this is not a Church function." Then she asked "Are you all Mormon?" We couldn't believe it! We were all blown away that someone would be able to call us out on our Mormon-ness. We had a good laugh about it and then went on our way as she left with a pie crust decorator and a Pyrex bowl.

When the presents all ran out, Ryan and Kimberly magically had Christmas tree decorations. We all decorated a sad little tree to being the Christmas spirit to a Harlem street.

Just when we thought the night couldn't get any more fun we entered the Simmon's apartment---aka a magical, colorful, Christmas wonderland. They had all the ingredients you could ever think of for flavored hot chocolate and yummy yummy treats. We played "Reverse Charades" where instead of having your team guess what you are acting out, your team acts out the word or phrase and one player has to guess.

When I saw this picture above, all I could think of was
Mr. Hugo Peabody (aka Ryan) in Bye, Bye Birdie shown below.

It is hard to pick a highlight of the evening, but if I had to one of the highlights of the evening was being selected to carry out the tradition of the "CHRISTMAS JELL-O." You might be asking yourself: "What is the Christmas Jell-o?" Well, we had the same question when we were selected. The story goes like this: A few years ago the Simmons were hosting a Christmas party, which included a nice Jello sculpture. Apparently, our friend, Stanton, asked if he could throw the Jello out of their 5th floor apartment window. The answer was yes, and every year since then, they have thrown "The Christmas Jello" out the window. 

After we took pictures with "The Christmas Jell-o" in front of the Christmas tree, Pat had the honors of the Jell-o toss. As Pat made the deposit, the entire party waited in silence as the Jell-o made it's way to it's final resting place, five stories below. Surprisingly, the Jell-o make a very loud "kur-plop," which was followed by cheers, shout for joys, and Merry Christmas's. I wish this was a tradition I could steal, but I think the fun of the tradition is the tradition was not planned and just happened. 

It's really too bad that these pictures could not capture the magic of the night. But then again, 

I don't think any amount of pictures or writing could accurately depict the fun we had.