Friday, December 25th, 2009

Christmas in the City

posted by lizzie    « 3 Comments »    tied to Uncategorized   

Yesterday was sunny and cold, so we put on our happy faces (yes, Oliver too), buried ourselves in layers and layers of clothing, then piled some blankets on the stroller and headed out to The City.

The goal: see the sights while they were there to see and partake of the Christmas spirit as it exists in Manhattan.

Our first stop was the Macy’s on 34th Street, where the window displays tell the story of “Miracle on 34th Street,” oddly enough. Simon was napping in the stroller at that point, so it really wasn’t too exciting.

But he woke up by the time we made it to Lord and Taylor’s, and I had a great time trying to get him excited about finding the little dogs in the window displays. (Note: you don’t take 2-year-olds to see the window displays because they think it is cool. You take them because you love to think that they think it is cool.)

We had a little bit of gingerbread house envy here . . . ours is in the making, but may not be done until sometime next week. Sigh.

Sidenote #1: It was confirmed to us on this outing that once we start to get hungry, all of the hole-in-the-wall pizzerias that we love so much run and hide. We can never find one when we need one. But they are all over the place when we’re not in the market for a slice. Go figure.

Sidenote #2: It was while Micah was out to hunt us down some grub and the boys and I were warming up in Rockefeller Center that I had my first “Oh my goodness, he was just here a second ago, where could he have gone?!?!” moment as a mother. (Insert panicked thoughts and racing heart here.) I was seriously seconds away from finding a security guard, but I scanned the crowded food court-ish area one more time and saw Simon’s little brown-checked hat peaking up from behind a chair. He was staring at a baby in a stroller. As if we didn’t have a baby to stare at already. Sheesh. He nearly gave me a heart attack.

Anyway . . . Micah came back with the pizza, we ate, warmed up, and took some pictures by the tree. The tree was the only way we got Simon from Bryant Park up to Rockefeller Center, so we thought we would capture the moment. We also wanted to show him the skating rink, but as soon as we found a place to watch from, everybody left the ice. Why on earth would they do that? It was the middle of the day . . . oh, wait. I see where this is going: And I think that’s a “Yes.” Kind of glad we stuck around for that.


But where were we? Oh, yeah. Window displays. After the tree we had 8 more streets to walk until we hit Bergdorf Goodman. The whole way there Simon kept telling us that he made all the buildings. We assured him that the citizens of New York City were very grateful for his services (and wondered where on earth he got that from). Then we reached our destination and were all rendered speechless. Bergdorf Goodman was . . . inspirational. They did a Lewis Carroll theme and they did it well. Possible Halloween costumes began brewing in our brains and I think we have some good ideas.

(This is from the rabbit hole in Alice in Wonderland.)

Unfortunately, the glare on the windows prevented us from taking any good pictures. So sad. And after we finished at Bergdorf Goodman, our minds were sufficiently blown (and our toes sufficiently cold) that we decided Barney’s and Bloomingdale’s probably weren’t worth the trek. (We had to walk by them anyway to get to the train station, so we glanced a the displays and our suspicions were confirmed: Bergdorf Goodman put them to shame.)
Oh, and Simon says, “Merry Christmas.” Can’t you see it in his eyes?

Comments

  1. a mermaid says:
    December 25, 2009 at 7:03 am

    Pure magic I tell you. I love it when you do these NYC posts that knock me right off my I-live-in-a-superior-locale high horse. :)

  2. Sarah says:
    December 27, 2009 at 2:54 am

    What exactly is Bergdorf Goodman? And thanks for the pictures, they're awesome!

  3. becca says:
    January 4, 2010 at 9:52 pm

    Wow! Makes me wish we'd gone and looked at the window displays in Salt Lake. Oh well! There's always next year! At least we saw the lights at temple square. Thanks for sharing and Merry Christmas Simon. Ü

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