Isn't she a beauty? This tree is truly breath-taking in person. I cannot imagine a more beautiful tree. 
I love this display of HUGE ornament balls. It is really a cool piece of art. 
We met up with Heidi and Andrew at Rockefeller Center. It was so nice to see them!
Jackson in front of the LOVE sign because he is my love. ;):)Ok, I am not posting anymore photos right now because it is a painfully slow process. Sorry. On to the rundown:
We left Denver at about 1 am mountain time. We flew JetBlue and they were awesome. Our flight was very full- much to our disappointment. We wanted to be able to spread out. They did, however, hand out sleep kits that had eye masks and ear plugs. How nice! Each seat has a tv and free satellites and movies. I watched for a little bit, but fell asleep. Poor Jackson couldn't get any rest. We landed 30 minutes early so it was only a 3 hour flight. Not bad at all! Thank you, JetBlue.
After a disaster with our shuttle service not showing up (do NOT use SuperShuttle- they suck!!) we got a taxi and headed into the city. Taxi drivers seem to have death wishes. Jeez. I about puked 800 times in the back of that cab from JFK to Manhattan. We got here in one piece, though. Our hotel was willing to let us check in at 10 so we had 2 hours to kill before we got some much needed sleep. Jackson had been up for over 24 hours at this point! We were pointed to a diner called "Astros" that was really good. It was so New York! It was tiny and the help was foreign. (There are not many English speaking people in NYC on Christmas Eve.) From there we went to a Starbucks to rest and enjoy a wonderful coffee treat. Yum! It was cold and rainy this morning so we wanted to take shelter- quickly! It finally came time to check-in and get some sleep and we could not have been happier. We showered up and got a long 3 hour nap. It was heavenly.
We headed out to meet Heidi and Andrew at Rockefeller Center. The tree! Oh so lovely! We had lunch down by the skating rink and watched many people fall. One girl did some tricks, but they were lame compared to the Olympics. ;) It was nice to catch up with our friends in a place the none of us call home!
We did typical tourist things and headed to Times Square. Kill me. Now. I have never seen so many darned people in one place. (Minus the breast cancer walk in Denver, but that was different.) I just wanted to scream. People run into you like you're not there. GRR people GRR. We walked down 5th Ave and did some shopping. I loved the window displays. We went to FAO Schwartz. We were like kids in there. It was a TON of fun!!! :)
We came back to the room and cleaned up before we headed out to dinner. We went to an Italian place near our hotel. It was SO delicious. We had bruschetta that was to die for! YUM! And chicken parm and lasagna. It was awesome and not too horridly expensive. That's important because this place is expensive!
After dinner we headed to a church service here in the city in a really old, gorgeous church. We stood in line for 50 minutes to get in (the services are really popular here) and right as we are walking in I notice a homeless man sitting on the stairs. I went to him, gave him some money and wished him a "Merry Christmas." I had no more left his side when a security officer for the church told him this was not a place for beggars and made him leave. The church is not a place for people with nowhere else to go? Really? Then where are we to go? As Jackson pointed out to me, weren't we at church to celebrate the birth of Someone who had nowhere to go many, many years ago?! (Jesus.) We went into the service, but I just could not shake the feeling that these people were missing the point of a Christmas Eve service. I told Jackson I wanted to leave and we did. Jackson told a guy on the way out what happened and he brushed us off and told us to tell someone who cares. Oh ok. Sweet. Nice church. Not. My heart was absolutely broken. After a few minutes of being upset I regrouped and decided that jaded New Yorkers would not mess with my Christmas. My Jesus still cares for the homeless man, even if they do not. Thank you, Jesus.
Jackson and I went back to see the big tree and it was packed! Do people not sleep?! After a quick stop for some New York cheesecake- yum- we came back up to retire. I convinced Jackson that I just had to pay the $12 fee to sign online so I could update you all on our trip thus far. Thank me later. Haha! :)
Merry Christmas to each and every one of you. May God bless you and yours on this very holy day.
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