Winter Break - NYC Edition

Backtracking a bit, my winter break was a ton of fun - full of family time, many destinations, Christmas and good laughs. It started out in New Jersey. I finished all of my papers, take homes and exams on Monday (the first day of exams) in order to get out of Grand Rapids early and spend as much time with family as possible. I drove all day Tuesday and spent the night at my Aunt and cousins house in New Jersey so that I didn't have to drive my car into the city. Wednesday I went with my aunt, two cousins, a cousin's boyfriend and a second cousin into the city to visit my parents. They wanted to see the new place and do NYC Christmas stuff.

(Oh yeah. I don't even think I updated about this. It all happened really fast. My dad was offered a job at a hospital in NYC in a management position and took it. He and my mom moved between Thanksgiving and Christmas (talk about crazy timing) to the city. It all happened in the matter of a couple months. It is definitely where God wants them and it turns out that they love it! Definitely to my surprise. Who would have ever thought that the girl who grew up outside the city, but never went to it and the boy who grew up working on a farm would one day end up living in downtown Manhattan?! Not me. So yeah. My parents who are recent empty-nesters now live in New York City.)

On Wednesday we went to Rockefeller Center and saw the tree all decorated and everything. We then went to a park that had an ice skate rink and a bunch of little shops. I went ice skating with my second cousin and it was a lot of fun. It was her first time ice skating and she got better each time around. Despite my face in the picture, I really did have fun! :)




It was very cold while we were there!

The rest of my time in the city was spent with my brother and his family and my parents. We did lots and lots of walking, which is what you do in the city and I loved hanging out with the family! Jack is the cutest thing in the entire world!

One day we went to the FDNY Museum and it was really cool. We walked around and took pictures. They had a Sept 11th memorial as well. It was fun to take pictures of Jack as a firefighter, just like his dad :)









Jack needed a souvenir from our adventures and who better than Curious George the firefighter?! He was quite attached and loves George very much!


My mom and I did some Christmas shopping on 5th Ave (Yeah. Crazy. We walked there.) and we investigated some good local restaurants. My last night there my parents and I discovered a great Japanese restaurant right around the corner. Everything is so convenient in the city. There are restaurants and stores everywhere. Everything is within walking distance and its just a different lifestyle. My parents are loving it and I have to say I loved it a lot more than I was expecting.