thanksgiving a little late…

i wanted to put these pictures up before it gets too late and it never happens. We had a great time over Thanksgiving in the greatest city there is. We met up with Julie’s brother and his wife (Bryan and Lis) and stayed at Noah’s place…he and his fam were in Houston for the weekend, so they were nice enough to let us stay at his place. I’m not sure there is a nicer couple on earth than Noah and Kristi. We are digging the fact that we are only a bus ride away from those guys.

So we met up there and had a great time. There is a Costco in Manhattan now! Just like a 10 minute bus ride from Noah’s place, so we headed up there to check it out. It was an unusual Costco experience, the employees were so helpful and so excited to have us there (pretty sure the idea of Costco is a brand new concept to them), and they spoke English. At the Costco in Arlington close by us here, most the people aren’t super fluent when it comes to English. Anyway, we found a turkey and all the fixins and made our first attempt at cooking a turkey. So I spent a lot of time on the phone with my mom trying to figure out how exactly to do it. I have a gag reflex problem sometimes, so I consider it quite a feat. Let’s face it, that raw turkey is NASTY. And I loved that they left the giblets and the neck in there just in case we wanted to eat them. Who the heck eats giblets? But I must say, with the help of everyone, we put together quite a feast…the turkey was actually really good too.

Before we ate we headed down with the masses to see the Macy’s Parade, which was awesome. It’s always cool to see something in real life that you’ve seen on TV every year. There were so many people there, that by the time we squirmed our way up to where you could actually see stuff, we only got to see the last 30 minutes or so. But that was good for us. We saw papa smurf and the pillsbury doughboy, and Santa on his huge old sleigh. Pretty sure it was the real Santa.

We went back to Noah’s place after and started cooking. Turned out pretty nice.

We spent the rest of the weekend showing Bryx and Lis our favorite spot around the city, and eating at all of our favorite spots. Here are some pics of the stops. The Brooklyn Bridge: one of my favorite spots in the city.

The East Village for some Falafel and Frites and weird people.

The Met and the MoMA

Rockefeller – home of some of the best Christmas spirit around.

 

Staten Island Ferry

Bar Coastal for the best wings around and watching the Cougs pull it out against the U with some good Coors LIght.

and a walk on the High Line. This was our first time up there. Such a cool idea…an elevated park on an old freeway through Chelsea. We were there just in time for the sunset over the Hudson. Google it, it is really amazing.

and a walk past Madison Square Park and the Flatiron – one of the coolest buildings on this planet.

 

and lots of time in the subway – a welcome break from the cold wind.

Can’t beat a weekend in NYC. It was so fun to be there with Bryx and Lis. We made it home and took care of the next matter of business. The Christmas Tree! Can’t tell you how excited I was about this one. There’s nothing quite like when the only light in the room is the faint glow of the Christmas tree. It’s the most wonderful time of the year…there’s just this spirit about everyone everywhere. Hope you are having the Merriest of Christmas seasons!

Have you watched Elf yet? Please do if you haven’t.