New York, New York

One: Like all Notre Dame graduates, I have the ability to make a tradition built out of nothing. We love tradition and tradition loves us.

Two: Yet, it seems I was also born with a wandering, vagabond self that dislike repetition, commitment, and sameness.

This year for the holidays, it appears that my second self won. Instead of heading home to Indy to celebrate Christmas as I had the first 25 years of my life, I packed my bag to the City that Never Sleeps. My parents and I took the train east to meet my sis who took the bus north where we all met up in a cute boutique-y just opened Hampton Inn in Soho to celebrate the holidays. And I have to say, it was quite a rockin' time for all. Despite the fact that the train ride took 9 hours longer than it should have and our first day there was wicked cold, I have to say this has been my favorite Christmas so far.

Day one of three was spent on multiple bus tours - we were total champs. We covered downtown to uptown and saw all of the Christmas lights to boot. We took a jaunt out to the Statue of Liberty, shopped at the UN Building, took in the lights of Time Square, judged the various windows of the major department stores, and saw all the major museums in 30 minutes or less. We froze our butts off, bonded with our tour guides, bought hand warmers from a street vendor, and stayed out late.

Day two of three we spent the morning shopping in Soho (where I got the cutest Betsey Johnson jewelry and my sister nabbed a fabulous Marc Jacobs bag), and then headed out take in all the Met Museum of Art has to offer, from beautiful Greek statues to historical musical instruments. We almost made it through a really fun Christmas Eve service until I unfortunately began to suffer from some sort of 24 stomach flu:(

Day three of three was Christmas and we woke up to gifts in the hotel room (sometimes parents are so clever) and my fam enjoyed breakfast while I drank hot tea and continued to try and recover. New York being New York, the city was saturated with activity and people both shopping and just out for the day. We began at Grand Central Station - a mecca for all train buffs such as my Dad - where we enjoyed a light show that was projected across the inside of the station. We then browsed the temporary shops set up in Bryant Park, and then enjoyed a gorgeous carriage ride through Central Park. We dared enter FAO Schwarz which was overrun, and then enjoyed the beauty of the Plaza Hotel. The evening was spent taking in vintage Jim Carrey through his new move Yes Man, followed by Christmas dinner at a true Irish Pub in the East Village.

Could it get any better? Yes it could - thanks to this fun-filled trip, I've also fulfilled two more of my 100/10 goals:

50) Go on a family vacation

89) Visit the UN building

Done and done.

Next post: the introduction of the Hall gnome