Christmas in NYC

I have a lot of memories of New York City during Christmas time from growing up. I don't remember exactly, but it seemed that my dad always had a conference or meetings or something right around the first weekend in December, and mom would take the rest of us up. I really only remember Patricia and Tim with me, which would make sense since Terry and Frank would have already been in college by the time I really start remembering. Driving through the city was always a nail-biting experience and the worst part for my mom, so one year, dad hired a limo to take us up.

Mike had never been to NYC during the holidays, but a meeting came up for him yesterday morning. So we both boarded a train on Sunday (I mean, why not tag along?) and headed up.

And while we wanted to do all the typical mid-town holiday sight-seeing, there was one other place I really, really, really, really, really wanted to go.

Eataly.

Eataly just opened at the end of August, and is a food and wine marketplace dedicated to Italian eating. It's a brainchild of Mario Battali, and in addition to seven full service eateries (yes, I'm pulling this from their website, but, hey, it describes it!), it also has a cafe, wine bar, and then stall after stall after stall of fresh meats, fish, cheese, vegetables, pasta....

OMG, it's like my heaven on earth.

(Melis, you may want to scroll really fast and skip some of these photos... ok, just one. Sorry.)

After gorging on cheese and prosciutto, we hopped back in a cab and headed to Midtown.

I present, the tree: 

 A view inside St. Patrick's Cathedral as mass was about to start:

The top of St. Patrick's:

 A lot of the high-end shops on Fifth Avenue decorated the outside of their buildings, which I adored.

Cartier:

Oh, shoot. I forget. But it was still pretty.

 Dior:

But I think I liked even more the big bank buildings on Sixth with their decorations out front:

Drinks at the Oak Room at The Plaza, then back to the hotel for some football and sleep catch-up (you can guess which of us watched football and which of us slept....)

Then a huge steak dinner at Maloney & Porcelli, with way too much wine, and somehow we stumbled back to the hotel. We forced ourselves out of bed to go for a jog in Central Park on Monday morning, but I admit to wishing every second I was still sleeping. Lunch with Frank, and an afternoon train ride back.

Not a bad 24 hours in Manhattan.