Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving flew by! We first started out at Mamaw's House. It was good seeing everyone again. The last time we were able to go to Thanksgiving was about 4 years ago (freshmen year of college). While the food was cooking, we played bean bag toss. We were doing very well, I made several in one after another. We were on a winning streak until the last game in which Logan and Neely won. It was a very good meal and great company, we were sad to leave early but headed back to watch the UT vs. A&M game. WHOOP!

Friday was Thanksgiving with the Camps. We had Popeye's fry the turkey so we could spend the rest of the time working on the side dishes. It was nice because Cade's mom, Logan and grandmother came over to join us.

It was Cade's first time carving the turkey.

Its tradition to put up the Christmas tree after Thanksgiving. This year we were a little cautious about even putting one up with what happened last year. Rusty was a kitten and we could NOT keep him out of the tree. By the end of December last year, we had 1/2 a tree of ornaments.

Last years tree with Rusty in it

We thought this year would be different so we went and picked out our first Christmas tree together. The decorating started off good but Rusty management to knock down several ornaments already. I guess we will just see how much we have left when Christmas gets closer.



Rudy eating the tree

Rusty eyeing an ornament




New York City

What an experience! We had an amazing time while in New York. We first arrived on Friday and had the pleasure of driving in the NYC traffic..I thought Houston drivers were bad but everyone in New York seems to honk at everything and they swerve in and out. It took us about a little over an hour to get to the Belvedere Hotel.

Our hotel was in a perfect location, it was only 6 blocks from Times Square. When we got to the hotel, we noticed that the shuttle we took left some one else's luggage in the middle of the street (they came back for it). We were so hungry from the flight and drive that we immediately went to Carnegie Deli (they had the best pastrami sandwiches in the world!) One plate is enough for two people and the pickles that they give you are delicious! After eating only 1/2 of our sandwiches, we headed to Times Square to check out all the lights. We found a little area to sit down at and drink our Starbucks. There is a Starbucks on every street!! I guess they have to have so many because of the cold weather, I've never worn as many layers as I did there. We also have never drank as much Starbucks in our life as we did.

Our first officialy day started off taking the subway to the Statue of Liberty. That was an experience..first off there was alot of construction so of course the train we needed to take was not running. We had to jump onto two other subways and then get onto a bus to take us to battery park. Battery Park was beautiful, we walked around to get to the line for the Statue but as we tried to get to the end of the line, we realized it was completely wrapped around the park. There was no way we were going to be able to wait for 4 hours and do the other sightseeing we wanted. Instead, we took the Staten Island Ferry (for free). While waiting for the ferry, we saw a homeless man digging through the trash cans. And yes, he found a delicious 1/2 eaten burger for his lunch. After taking the ferry and getting plenty of pictures of the Statue of Liberty, we headed to Ground Zero. They were doing construction on the memorial so we were not able to get any pictures so we headed to Wall Stree which was just a few streets away. We saw the New York Stock Exchange and the famous bull. It was surprisingly not as big as I thought Wall Street would be, we did go on a weekend so you couldn't see all the people.

(Staten Island Ferry)

(Wall Street) 

The New York City Marathon was going on while we were there, about 40,000 people ran. We woke up early to go get breakfast at Fluffy's Bakery and headed to Central Park where the race was. It was a beautiful day so we were able to get some nice photos but of course cold. After watching some of race, we walked to FAO Schwartz. I've always wanted to go and play on the big piano. 5th Avenue was right next to FAO Schwartz, we went into Tiffany & Co (the original one in the movie Breakfast at Tiffany's). Cade let me buy a necklace from there since he knows how much I love the movie and the store. By this time our feet were killing us, so we decided to go back to the hotel and relax. We decided to try out Oyster Bar & Restaurant for dinner in Grand Central. I would recommend going to Grand Central at night, the lighting in the restaurant and throughout was very romantic and you didn't have to deal with the hustle & bustle.

 Before going to our first broadway show, we ate at Thalia's. They have a great brunch special. After eating, we walked to the Gershwin theater to see Wicked. It was phenomenoal! Unlike, TUTS they let you have drinks and snacks in the theater. We had "Ozmopoliatan's" and were at the edge of our seats. The show was funny, full of drama and wonderful music. With our feet still tired, we decided we better rest up so we grabbed a pizza from Ray's and headed to the hotel.

(on top of the Empire State Building)

We ate breakfast at a nice french restaurant, Pigalle, our last day. We walked one last time around Times Square and Rockefeller Plaza taking pictures. We took the NBC tour and saw the set of Jimmy Fallon's late night show. Of course, we stopped for the last time to get Starbucks before leaving for the airport. While we were on the plane, he sat next to a man that was bringing home is adopted daughter. Her name was Olivia and she was from Ecuador and they had been flying for 28 hours. We were glad to come back home in the warm weather and drive a car.

New York was so much fun!