Hi my lovely readers. I am completely embarrassed to look up, and look you in the eyes. Why? Well, I have completely deserted you the last month, and have no excuse – except life got busy. Since I last posted, Christmas came and went, and we embarked on a brand new year. A time to start fresh. The slate is wiped clean, and we are given not just a new hour, day, week, or month, but WHOLE NEW YEAR!! However, before I start completely anew, I want to give you a little recap of what has been going on.

I spent a whole week home before Christmas. It was greatly enjoyed, and and desperately needed. I slept in and stayed up late, went to the gym with my sister LOTS, ran errands with Mom, visited with family, baked cookies, assembled Christmas cards, went to movies, saw best friends, got a haircut (last one was in June), drank a glass of Cakebread, treated myself to manis and pedis, ate yummy homemade dinners, ate out @ Amsterdam, Arricia, Panera and Big Blue [some all time favs], laughed hysterically as I watched my brother put together their new bugaboo, sang Christmas songs at the Christmas Eve church service, watched snow fall on Christmas night, and soaked up every single minute of everyday.

As the festivities came to an end, our fun was just beginning because my family was accompanying me back to the City through New Years. Well, Christmas night our flight was cancelled for the following morning. To our dismay we wouldn’t fly out until Tuesday. After a long headache with Delta, we finally got rebooked. Hallelujah! Flying into NYC was a pretty sight.

The flight was a breeze, but we were not sure if the cab ride was going to be so safe. We passed lots of snow covered abandoned cars on the side of the NJ Turnpike. The traffic was insane, and the snow was mucky. As our cab driver jumped lots of curbs, in an effort to avoid the LONG line of traffic entering into the Holland Tunnel, he assured was this is how “New Yorkers” do it. He followed that by, “No worries we are in a brand new 2011 mini-van with 4-wheel drive. Now I don’t know how you feel about that, but I was not completly convinced that was suppose to give me a peace of mind. Good news, we made it…almost! We could not get to the front of my apartment (clean up was and still is a slow and still in the works process), but we trudged 1 block through the sloshy ickiness with our rolling bags. I might add I had on flats. Not a good idea. Needless to say, I lived in my Hunter Boots this past week. There is no hope for looking to stylish in this weather. So you are thinking…snowy and cold, what do you do in the City with weather like that? We had not problem staying throughly entertained. We laughed our way through the snow. It took double the time to walk anywhere because of the mounds of snow and deep puddles of slush blocking our pathway. We managed to make it over to Stan’s (fabulous) new office one evening after dinner at a favorite-The Harrison. His office has a 360 view of Manhattan. On the south-eastern edge there is a fabulous view overlooking Ground Zero, and the construction of the under-construction Freedom Tower. The void in the Cityscape is pretty moving. And the view is absolutely magnificent!

We also stumbled upon another pretty magnificent view in Soho. It was a little smaller scale, and was found on the entrance doors to the Soho Under Armour pop-up store. All I can say is “War Eagle” because Auburn really is “the best players in the game”!

Now to go on a complete ramble. We had fun!  We ventured in and our of lots of design showrooms. Where I decorated a dream house. I fell in love with this tile…

and this faucet…

We took the subway to my new office (come next week!). We ventured into fabulous antique stores. I bought a rug a fabulous rug at ABC Carpet & Home. We shopped @ fabulous NYC boutiques. We ate at some of my local favorites: Warren 77, Locanda Verde, Cafe SFA @ Saks, The Hummus Place, and Le Pain Quotidien. And we probably laughed again, and jumped a few more slushy puddles of melting snow. Last night we rang in the New Year on a more local style, completely avoiding the chaos and misery of crowds of midtown (aka Time Square). Sadly this morning, the fam packed up and left me behind. I found myself in tears of sadness. I wanted to rewind the past two weeks, and relive them over and over and over again. I recapped the fun we had over the Christmas holiday, and just wanted that back. Life must go on. Back to the daily grind, but it just reminds me that memories are better than anything money can buy!!

Happy New Year!!

Hi All! Long time no chat. Since last time we chatted, A LOT has happened. I am pretty sure my mind has been racing way faster than my little body my move. It doesn’t seem exactly healthy for my heart either. Sometimes I feel like it is beating straight out of my chest! Two hours on the plane for an unexpected trip home last night was a welcomed relief. I had the whole row to myself, and two hours of no internet or people to talk to. It was late, and I was exhausted so I was thrilled to be chilled out! However, the occasion is a little more somber, but a real celebration of my Grandma’s life. She passed away yesterday after a up hill and down hill battle with cancer. Thank you for your prayers!! Isn’t she a catch…?

Christmas is in full force here in NYC, I am even contributing to the festivities with a 3′ tree inside my apartment. It smells of evergreen, and the christmas tunes are playing loud!! Doesn’t get much better than that.

I love this time of year in the City. Every street corner you turn you find yet another little pop up shop Christmas tree vendor. So for me this year, instead of the parking lot at K-Mart back home, it’s the corner of Greenwich and Chambers. I’ve quickly realized that it’s okay for traditions to evolve over the years. I might not be bundling up (b/c it use to be REALLY cold after Thanksgiving) with my Mom, Dad, Big Brother and Baby Sister. We’d get hot chocolate, probably because I had not tolerance for the cold, and head to the “Christmas Tree Man” that setup year after year in the parking lot adjacent to K-Mart. My brother and I would meander through the trees to pick out the tallest, most perfect (and probably meaning most expensive) tree we could find. Mom would have to approve first! We’d also pick out a little tree, known as the “kid’s tree”. This one was adorned with colorful lights, and all the ornaments we’d made or bought on family trips. The “big tree” was elegant and beautifully lit with white lights. They’d load them in the back of Dad’s truck and we’d head home. Then poor Dad, some how managed to carry our 8′-9′ tree inside all by himself. It didn’t end there. A little left, no now a little the right. Okay, not pull it back towards you a little…WELL, IT HAD TO BE STRAIGHT! This usually ended in a little frustration, followed by sweeping up all the stray pieces that sprinkled the floor from the car to the house. But we all still had BIG smiles on our faces. I would be chomping at the bit to decorate it RIGHT THEN, everyone else seemed a little exhausted. Funny enough, it seems year after year it ended up being just Mom and I hanging all the ornaments. Everyone else seemed to bail after two or three. Oh the memories. So you know, change, even little change, can be hard. I miss these days, but when I find that “teary” feeling coming on, I just try to reminisce on fond, fond memories of Christmas time when I was younger. I remind myself to be thankful of those times, and look forward to the new and exciting things to come. However, I still cannot wait to go home before Christmas, wrap presents with Mom, sit by the fire with a lit Christmas tree as a beautiful backdrop, and relish in the moment as we make new memories!

*Mom, after watching you make gazillions of bows year after year after year. Well, I still cannot do it near as well as you. You just have all these little tricks, and I cannot quite get them right. The whole twist thing when you’re making the bow? I am trying to master it!