Christmas Day in Manhattan

Knowing this was our last day in New York, we had certain things we knew we wanted to accomplish. We started out a little later since the Empire State building was our first stop and it did not open until 11 because of the holiday. So we ate breakfast and then made all our "Merry Christmas phone calls" to our family... of course, MoMo Fontenot wanted to know "what in the hell I was doing in New York City for Christmas......" but I did not have enough energy to attempt to explain that one!

So off we went....thinking we would get to the ESB, see the sights and move on....

Well, of the 8 million people who were in Rockefeller Plaza last night, I am confident that 4 million of them woke up this morning and said "Hey, let's head to the Empire State Building on this beautiful Christmas day because we want to get in line ahead of Mads and Kelli!"


We stood in line for almost THREE HOURS....yes, that is 180 minutes....to get to the top. But it was worth it to see Mads' face as he took in the view....and what a view it was!! (A funny story I have to tell is about one of the employees at one of the points along the way kept announcing he was collecting coins to represent everyone that was there that day...the man in front of us gave him a quarter from Columbia, the lady behind us, a coin from Australia and so I dug in Mads' wallet to find a Danish krone to give him..and I felt pretty smart saying it was a coin from Denmark--like it was mine, or something!) Take a look at the view we saw:






This one is especially amazing...look at the shadow of the ESB along the other buildings.....

We finally made our way down from the 86th floor, hungry and tired (and in search of a bathroom!)... but both agreeing it was worth the wait!


We began our walk down Park avenue...to that triangular building that looks like it divides the street...you know..this one:


so that we could get a few photos and then find a subway station that would take us to Central Park.... where we prayed we would find a bathroom and food! And it did....
(and I must say, we got this NY Transit system figured out...at least the routes throughout Manhattan!)

We had a great lunch at Mickey Mantle's on Park Avenue, overlooking Central Park where we could eat and watch the hansom cabs carrying people up and down Park avenue....pretty surreal! Central Park is one of those places that amazes you each time you see it. You spend all this time in a place like New York and then all of a sudden you happen upon Central Park...and see families walking, dogs playing, ice skaters skating and people just enjoying themselves, lost in nature. It is wonderful. If we ever live in NYC, we will make sure we live in walking distance to CP....as a way to have a place where you can relax and breathe better in the middle of the big city!





So now we are back in our room at the Mansfield hotel with lattes from the Starbucks across the street (oh and did I mention that there is a SB about every 200yards here?! Talk about heaven on earth! LOL).... and you guessed it, we are in our matching MAVS pjs! Our flight leaves LaGuardia at 6am (again, another great idea when we booked this in AUGUST!!!) so we will be asleep EARLY! Then we arrive in Dallas at 10:35...just in time to swing by and pick up Albert so we can go home and rest and prepare our contributions to the Christmas celebration at Mom's on the 27th. I must say, I am ready to be back home with my family and ready to celebrate Christmas... Mads' first Christmas with his new family.

Enjoy your night and love to all!