manhattan in december

The Tree at Rockefeller Center

Breakfast with Santa

FAO Schwartz LEGO display

There are many things that I've always said I wanted to do, but just haven't gotten around to doing them, so this year I finally got around to planning a trip to NY at Christmastime. Brady had never been to Manhattan before and the beauty of the city all lit up...the tree at Rockefeller...the Christmas music...the smells and sights...I decided that this was the year that I HAD to take him.

A few times when I was growing up, my mom would do this "Breakfast with Santa" at Rockefeller Center. I loved going and we would wake up before sunrise, bundle up in layers and drive down to the city. We went ice skating at the rink and I even skated with Santa once...and I pulled him down once...but it was great fun. I had mentioned it to my mom that I wanted to do it with Brady (start my own traditions), so she joined in and we set our reservation.

We left our house at 5:00 a.m. (Brady kept asking why it was still dark out:-) and it was so hard to stay awake on the drive down, but we made it in 2 hours!!! The earlier the better because I hit NO traffic and we were lucky at the Lincoln Tunnel because it started to get backed up, but we made it. Our breakfast reservation was for 7:00, so we met my parents on 48th St. and we walked to the Rock Center Cafe. My dad ended up joining us (for free! yey!) and we had a great breakfast. The elves first came around to every table, bringing a bag of gifts for every kid! Brady loved it and then Santa made his appearance.

On a side note...every night we've been reading a page in this book, Santa Claus and we just LOVE it! If you're looking for a last minute Christmas gift for someone who still believes, then this is a great present. (Barnes and Noble also carries it!) So, now we know ALL about Santa and I told Brady that he was going to see Santa, but we had to look really closely because it could be the REAL Santa, not just one of his helpers. The REAL Santa has that magical spark in his eye, so I told Brady to look out for it.

Later after Santa left our breakfast table, Brady turned to me and said it was the real Santa because he saw the spark! Here are some pics of B with Santa...oh and get this...the whole entire time Santa was talking to him...Brady wouldn't stop eating!!! It was a riot!!!

After breakfast, my mom and I went out on the rink. Brady was adnament about not skating, but I guess when he saw how much fun I was having (and I was having a tun of fun!) he decided to join in. He did sooo good...well mommy did good basically pulling him along, but we went around the rink 3 times and he didn't fall once. He ended up falling while he was holding on to the railing, but it was nothing! It was great for Brady, but I forgot how much I enjoyed going it! Growing up, my mom would take us every winter, but I haven't been in 5 years, and after a few laps it all came back to me and I felt like I skated better that ever!

Overall NY was great...we saw the Christmas display at Saks, went into St. Peter's Cathedral, walked up to FAO Schwartz, and then took a cab to Times Square to see the Toys R Us store. By the time we got there it was so crowded that you couldn't even move, so we weren't there for long and we didn't make it on the ride, but there will be more trips!

So, would I suggest going to the city in December??? Only if you leave at 5:00 a.m. and get there early! By 10:00 the city was packed. At every street corner it was like an ocean of people crossing...streets were closed down...there were lines around the blocks to see the Saks display and more lines to get into stores. It was great for the Breakfast and Ice Skating, but other than that, way too crowded.

Our next trip to the city is at the end of January. Disney on Broadway was doing a promotion...buy one adult ticket, get a child's ticket for free...so we got tickets to see the LION KING!!! It's been my dream to bring Brady and at least he's going for free, so just in case he doesn't make it through the whole show, I've summed up my mom to be on call to pick him up so I can at least watch and enjoy the show:-)

***Please check out my friend Megan's blog about the whole "Sharing Christmas." It's a great way to see everyone's house and be able to share your home for the holidays.