They ask Jill if she’d like to buy some lemonade and of course she’s all over it. She asks how much it costs and the answer is 50 cents. She figures that the price isn’t too bad – we don’t know the price of lemonade in Alabama right now, but we figure it could possibly be up to 50 cents by now. However, when she gets the cup, it’s like a shot glass! You know those tiny paper cups that are often found in bathrooms? That’s what these were. Fifty cents for a shot of lemonade – these girls are going to do well in business in this city!

Jill was so upset – but her mind was spinning. She looked and me and said, “Follow me.” We walk down and over a few blocks and barely get to a spot where we can see it – and we made it just minutes before it was lit. This is no doubt the biggest Christmas Tree we’ve ever seen, and to count down from 10 just before it was lit was really neat. It was another great experience that we were able to do while living in the Big Apple.

After the parade, we went home and feasted on Jill’s amazing cooking – chicken casserole, pineapple casserole, sweet potato casserole, and chocolate delight. That was enough to tire us out, so we got out the aero bed, put it in front of the TV, watched football, and dozed in and out for the rest of the night.

We braved the crowds the next day – shopping in NYC on the day after Thanksgiving Day! We were lazy the rest of the weekend, shopping in between. For the past three years we have had to wait until the last minute to shop. Since we lived in London, everything was not only too expensive to buy there, but we didn’t have room in our suitcases to bring it back to the U.S. So by the time we went home for the holidays the week before Christmas, we had to rush out and shop after everything was already picked over. We knocked out a lot of our Christmas shopping this weekend, and it felt great to find what we needed and get it done early!

After that, we came home so Jill could open her presents. She has been good, so she got all kinds of stuff. Levi helped her open half of them. Her birthday fell on Thanksgiving Eve, so we went to midtown to watch the parade balloons being blown up (something the locals recommend). That was pretty neat – the balloons were much bigger than we had imagined and it was neat to see them close up.

Next, we went for a romantic carriage ride through Central Park. Sasha was the name of our horse, and what a beautiful ride it was! Finally, we went and had dinner at Next to Nobu – I had previously arranged for Lisa and Tim to meet us there as a surprise for Jill. We all had a great time and the food was fabulous! Jill, your birthdays are coming fast and you’ll soon catch up to me! I hope you enjoyed your birthday and I love you very much!

The three of us took the ferry to Staten Island on Sunday – there’s not too much going on over there, but the views of the City and Statue of Liberty were awesome! Brad left for San Francisco and Phoenix on Monday, so my dad helped me walk dogs all week. We checked out Tiffany's on Wall Street while we were out. There was another Street Fair on Broadway – the road shuts down during holidays and street vendors set up shop (Brad is always out of town when this happens). We had some delicious corn on the cob and crepes! We finished the night off with Mexican food at Mary Ann’s.

During his visit, we ate more hotdogs than we’ve had in the past year – the best dogs were at South Street Seaport. We shopped the entire week - Saks, Bloomingdales, Macy's, Lord & Taylor, 5th Ave, Soho, and Links of London to name a few. We got to see Carrie Underwood record a song for the upcoming Rockefeller Center Tree Lighting show. We also took a trip to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island since he didn’t do this during his last visit.

The last time my dad was in town, we found a great restaurant in Little Italy called Le Mela. Well, this time we found one even better – Angelo’s. It’s the best one in Little Italy so far. We took the long route home by walking 25 blocks! We also had lunch at Soupman – No soup for you! The highlight of his trip was dinner at Pearl Oyster Bar. This was his favorite restaurant – we went there twice! It didn’t snow as he was hoping, but I think he had a great time!

Ashley, Reilly, and Kelsey came up to NYC for their first visit to the Big Apple, and we had a great time! They had a nice ride over here from the car service we hired (no taxi needed).

As soon as they got to our place, Reilly and Kelsey were ready to hit the famous Toys R Us store. So after a quick happy hour at Merchants Café, we headed uptown so they could spend the money that was burning holes in their pockets. While we were there, they rode in the Monopoly car in the big Ferris wheel. After getting their toys, they were done – no need to tour NYC when you have new toys to play with!

They went with Jill to walk her dogs on Friday before heading out to see the Statue of Liberty. Once I was off work for the weekend, it was on. Jill and I still had several things on our “NYC to do list”, so we all did them together. We went to three museums (Guggenheim, Museum of Modern Art, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art).

We also went to see Mary Poppins (where Reilly made it more interesting by looking for mistakes), the Empire State Building (great night views of the city, but very windy and cold), Canal Street, Little Italy, Heidelberg (a German restaurant where Ashley had the best German food she’s ever had), Central Park Zoo (while Jill and I shopped at Tiffany’s), and Jill and Reilly went ice staking at Rockefeller Center.

So what were Reilly and Kelsey’s favorite thing in New York City? Reilly’s was taking Levi to the dog run and Kelsey’s was going to Toys R Us. We had a great time during your visit and we hope that Ashley and John get to come back in January. We’ll see you all again during Christmas!