Best I can do today

I wanted to have something really super exciting to post about, but alas there is nothing...I have been working too much to have any great experiences. So instead I have dug into the archives of my pictures and thought I would try something new...

First off, I Y fireworks! I just do. The very first time that I experienced a firework display in this city we were in our apartment when we heard an excessively loud booming echo coming from outside. To be perfectly honest it scared the living daylights out of me! Concerned, we stepped out on the balcony - that is when we realized the source of the noise...fireworks over the East River! Sounded a bit like gun-shot reports repeating down the canyon (aka Wall Street). Nothing quite like I had ever experienced before, but it was very fascinating.

Here is a video of one firework display as seen from the corner of William and Wall, 16 stories up!

*** I think the best 'works and noise are in the middle to end of the video :)

Artistic Endeavor

Every once in a while, I have a desire to be creative...I find myself wandering around the house trying to think of something artistic to do. I have always loved working with scissors and paper so Kimberly and I decided to make snowflakes yesterday...lots of snowflakes! Mel convinced us to hang our creations on the wall - worked perfect with the blue.
Did I mention how much I love cutting up paper? But I am having trouble determining which snowflake I like best. These are the ones winning at the moment.



It was fun!

Happy Thanksgiving

A group of us who stayed in the city had Thanksgiving dinner together. Many thanks to Whitney for doing most of the planning, food assignments, organizing and finding guests to help eat. Also thanks to everyone who contributed food - everything was homemade! As the weather was so beautiful, we ended up having dinner on our terrace. It turned out perfect.

We had such fun preparing the different dishes. I was lucky to get to make pies and rolls. On Wednesday evening, Mel helped out with making the fresh apple pie. She did a wonderful job stacking the apples carefully within the shell to make a very full pie.
It baked up beautifully and tastes delicious.
I also made two pumpkin pies and a raspberry pie. It didn't set up as well as I would have liked but the flavor was still good. Spent Thursday morning making rolls. I love making rolls. Maybe my favorite part of the day.
A collection of some of the goodies...we had so much food. I think about fifteen people came for dinner and we probably had enough food for thirty! Oh well, plenty of leftovers :)

It was such a blessing (another reason to be thankful I guess) that NYC was experiencing such mild weather for a fall day...it was somewhere in the 60's and the sun was shining. It worked out great to have dinner on the terrace - room for everyone!

I really hope that everyone who came had a good time, I certainly enjoyed the opportunity to build relationships and enjoy good food.

The rest of the day was spent in relaxing, enjoying good conversations, eating pie and watching movies. It was such a nice day.

I convinced Kimberly that she wanted to stay up late and watch movies with me. We couldn't resist a little snack...something about the day just makes it hard to stop eating!

Balloons!

It is an awesome time to be in the city and to be able to have so many unique and exciting experiences!

The annual inflation of the massive balloons for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is held near the Natural History Museum on the Upper West Side. Took advantage of the opportunity to go see the massive balloons before the parade. It was amazing! Here are a few of my favorites...

Frosty the Snowman
The Energizer Bunny
Macy stars
In honor of my brothers and cousins... Mr. Potato Head!

I was completely unprepared for the hordes of people who turned out for the event! I would love to know how many people were there because the streets were absolutely packed. Between the theatre's being closed and the nice weather, people must have had nothing else to do. There were so many children there - by far the most I have seen in NYC anywhere outside of Central Park!

It was a great NYC experience! I am still a bit awestruck from being so close to the floats that previously only existed in an abstract way for me...it was well worth pushing through the crowds to see!

Talk about "Fast Food"

Not only do you get the food fast, you better eat it fast too!

I don't remember these signs in the Wendy's where I come from...not a very welcoming atmosphere, but still one of my favorites!

Ice-skating at Bryant Park

A group of us celebrated Kimberly's birthday by going ice-skating at Bryant Park.

Me, Lyndee, Kristian, Kimberly, Melanie, Heidi, Alesha, Dave, (front) Brittany, Libby, and Pamela

Thanks to the instruction and help from Kristian, Kim and Dave, I actually managed to move away from the wall. And through the persuasion of Lyndee and Melanie - I skated around the rink twice all by my-lonesome, which I consider a major accomplishment. During the course of the evening, my seat only made contact with the ice once!

Me, happy to have made it through the evening without injury, and my good friend Heidi!

Contrary to my original expectation, it was very fun.

Lucky

Just stepped out to grab lunch. Not certain if it was me or them, but.....the guy at the sandwich counter handed me the sandwich I had ordered and, as I was turning away, asked if I would also like a pickle. How did he know that I had been standing there thinking how good a pickle would taste? As it was not on the menu board, I hadn't bothered ordering it but he gave me one anyway! Then, Jen wanted to stop at Starbucks...I succumbed to the temptation and ordered a couple Triple Chunk Brownie Cookies. As the girl handed the bag to me, she said that she had included an extra because it was broken. As if she knew that I had debated getting one more...

Things like this always make me smile - Y it!