Dec 17

Dec 17 It’s the most wonderful time of the year!!!

A few years ago, my husband and I decided that we had enough “stuff” and decided to start taking short trips as our gift to one another. This year, we decided to visit NYC!! New York in December has literally ALWAYS been on my list!!

I’m sure you’ve heard that New York is “magical” during the holidays and you would be right!!

Since this was going to be a whirlwind trip of about 36 hours, we wanted a hotel that was convenient to activities/sites we were interested in. We got lucky and were able to snag a room at the W Hotel in Union Square. Not only were the rooms modern and large, the hotel was literally across the street from a lovely farmers market AND the Union Square Christmas Market. It’s also next door to a CVS which was super helpful since we forgot our hairbrush. Haha

If you’ve never visited a Christmas Market, you are really missing out! The Market at Union Square had gorgeous handcrafted items made right in New York! Everything from gorgeous scarves, unique journals, hand crafted jewelry, art, candles, soaps, and so much more! Not to mention the yummy goodies! I had some delicious apple cider while another member of our group had apple cider donuts! YUM! Honestly, I didn’t take any photos of the Market which is completely unlike me BUT I was honestly just so wrapped up in the moment and photos just didn’t cross my mind. Sorry. We actually hurried back on Sunday morning before our flight and bought my son a gift that I just know he’s going to love.

When I think of New York, I always envision myself gracefully ice skating around a gorgeous rink all decked out for the holidays and I was determined to make that happen during our trip. We chose Bryant Park to make my ice-skating dreams come true! They have a gorgeous tree, lots of seating for non-skaters, and a Christmas Market!

While I did indeed go ice skating, there was absolutely NOTHING graceful about it! Haha Luckily, my friend Katie joined me on the ice and while we didn’t do a lot of anything that could ever be considered “skating” we had lots of laughs!

Window displays are a big deal in NYC and for good reason. They are simply gorgeous! Macy’s and Saks are known for their amazing window displays and they did not disappoint!

Macy’s theme was “Believe in the Magic” and follow Santa Girl on her journey to inspire everyone to be like Santa Claus.

Saks has a Frozen 2 theme for their window display and for their holiday lights display! I can honestly say that I’ve never seen anything quite like it! It was incredible and just magical!

No trip to NYC would be complete without a visit to the iconic tree at Rockefeller Center! The tree is simply stunning! There is also an ice-skating rink so if you’re looking to make your ice-skating dreams come true, the rink at Rockefeller Center is a great place to do so!

Did you even go to NYC if you didn’t see a show? I don’t think so. LOL What’s more Christmas than seeing the Christmas Spectacular at Radio City starring the Rockettes?! Not much, so that’s exactly what we decided to do! I was a little worried that it was going to be a more slow-paced show and I would get bored, but my worries were for nothing. The show was simply spectacular! I can’t wait to see it again!

If you know me at all, you know that I simply love food! NYC has an abundance of delicious dining options and I was excited to try some new places.

I missed out on having a New York bagel on our September visit, so it was at the top of my list this trip! Let me tell you, I found the most DELICIOUS bagel ever!!!

My husband simply adores pizza so there was no way we were leaving New York without hitting a pizza joint. Katie found us a quaint restaurant serving up authentic Neapolitan pizza! I have no words! It was some of the best pizza that I’ve had outside of Naples, Italy!! Simply incredible!

I don’t necessarily think Irish Pubs when I consider dining in NYC but one of our favorite meals from our last visit was at an Irish Pub. Due to some other restaurants being extraordinarily busy, we ended up an Irish Pub this visit as well and it was equally delicious and fun! If you haven’t tried McGee’s Irish Pub, you’re missing out. McGee’s Irish Pub was the inspiration for McLaren’s Pub on the hit TV series, How I Met Your Mother. How fun is that?!

We absolutely never would’ve covered this much ground had it not been for my incredible friends (also BPT agents) Katie and Tracy!! They went out of their way to ensure that we checked off everything on our list plus some! Thanks to them, our day was just magical!