Christmas Eve

I had the best Christmas Eve and Christmas Day! Surrendering to where you are instead of wishing you were someplace else makes all the difference in the world. (Having a wonderful friend who you want to spend time with doesn't hurt either!)

I had to work on Christmas Eve, covering for a coworker in Queens, (and believe me, this was the busiest week with clients making poor decisions, both mine and my coworker's--the holidays can be difficult for people)so after work I came home and took a nap. I had plans to meet my good friend, Jenn, who also had to work, to attend midnight mass. Our plans were to meet on Fifth Avenue & 58th Street and walk around a bit before mass started.

One of my favorite areas in NYC is 5th & 58th. It's what I consider to be a romantic area and on Christmas Eve it is simply magical! It's at the bottom of Central Park and so there are a lot of horse drawn carriages. My favorite movie theater is there, Paris, as well as the Plaza Hotel. (I have always wanted to go to the Plaza! I admit it's maybe the one 'wedding dream' I have, to spend my wedding night at the Plaza!) Many tourists are always in this area to check out the Apple store and shop at FAO Schwartz. But the best thing to see at Christmastime are the windows at Bergdorf Goodman!

I met Jenn at the corner and was greeted by her warm smile (and a diet coke bottle filled with spirits;) The windows at Bergdorf Goodman were spectacular, truly a work of art. We went to both The Plaza and the Waldorf Astoria, my first time at both luxury hotels (it was only to use the restrooms, but no one needs to know that!) Jenn was unable to get tickets for St. Patrick's Cathedral's mass (which you have to do in September) so we tried to find another Catholic church they recommended, St. Agnes. We finally found St. Agnes, only to discover they didn't have a midnight mass! We wandered around the city trying to find anther catholic church when we stumbled upon St. Bartholomew's Church. Beautiful! We were late, but managed to hear and sing some Christmas songs as well as partake in communion (which I don't think you're supposed to do if you're not Catholic, but we did anyway--my first time in a long time approaching and kneeling at an altar.)

And then Christmas Day...