Merry Christmas from NYC

I hope everyone had a happy holiday. Shawn and I spent a quiet Christmas here in NYC. We had a great Christmas Eve dinner in our neighborhood. We woke up Christmas morning, had brunch, opened presents, went on a long walk through Central Park, went and braved the madness in Rock Center then settled in for a wonderful dinner and apple pie!

Rock Center Tree

Crazy street vendors everywhere!

Central Park

Christmas Eve Dinner

Bailey's Party

It's homemade Bailey's time of year again. I had a few people over to the apt for snacks and Bailey's. I love making this secret recipe holiday treat! Katie was in town for 10 days, and we decided that as the hostesses we needed to look our holiday best. Christmas vests were a must! :)

Getting Ready for Christmas

Dinner Party Time
You can get a tree right outside of our door 24/7

Back to the baby tree for now

Turkey Day

My thanksgiving this year was full of adventure. Shawn's dad and brother came into town on Wednesday, and we hit up the Macy's Day Parade balloons being blown up in our neighborhood with Jim and Emily. Really, none of us knew just how many people would want to watch balloons being blown up. There were literally thousands and thousands of people!

I also cooked a full Thanksgiving dinner for the boys before I left to spend the rest of the weekend with my family in Spokane.

I arrived around 6:30 p.m. in Spokane...just in time for dinner. Everything was great, even the turkey that my mom somehow managed to cook upside down!

Friday was spent working and getting ready for the first ever O'Neill family benefit concert. Despite all of the madness and last second running around, the concert was totally amazing. My family was amazing. The talent in one family is unreal!

The day I got back from the long weekend in Spokane, my cousin Matt and his wife Amy were in town just for the night. We went to the Knicks game. It was great to see them and catch up!

Radio City Rockettes and Regis

We've had an exciting 12 hours! Last night Shawn and I went to the Radio City Rockettes Christmas Show. I really didn't know what to expect when we got there, but when it was all said and done, the show was great. The costumes and sets were amazing, and those girls were never even a milla-second off beat! Our friends Jim and Emily came with us.

Radio City looks so beautiful this time of year. It is fully decked out inside and out for Christmas. I normally don't start to celebrate Christmas until Thanksgiving is over, but this show was an acceptation! :)

The fun continued this morning when we went to LIVE with REGIS & KELLY. As I've said before, we live right across the street from ABC, and I stare out at the people in line every morning. Well today the Knicks City Dances were on the show, and Shawn made sure that him and I were on the guest list! Kelly learned one of their routines and performed it live with them! She was a total trooper and did a pretty good job! David Archuletta (sp?) from American Idol and Daniel Craig, the new James Bond, were there too!

PS I saw Usher at Whole Foods last week :)

Happy Birthday Sis

I just wanted to give a quick shout out to my sister on her 28th birthday. She is the best sister I could have ever asked for. Although we often took each other for granted when we were young, we have become the best of friends as we have grown older and matured. She is a strong, smart, loving and nurturing woman. I love you and am so happy to call you my sister.

Knicks, Halloween & the NYC Marathon

Basketball season is here, and Shawn has been working his tail off. Opening night was great, and we finally got to see his hard work and LONG hours pay off!

Corinne and Me at the game

Q-Tip from Tribe Called Quest performed pre game and at half time.

For Halloween I was a Vampire Bride and Shawn was an In and Out worker who was my dinner and turned into a Vamp. We've been watching too much of the HBO series True Blood! :)

Shawn's long time friend Aaron and his girlfriend were in town this weekend. On Saturday we walked the Brooklyn Bridge and had dinner at Girmaldi's Pizza.




Sunday was the NYC Marathon. The finish line was right next to my house, so Jim and Emily came over for Bloody Mary's and we headed over to Central Park to watch the runners on their 26th mile.

How beautiful in Central Park in Fall!?!?!

Rebelution, Battery Park and more around town

My brother, for those of you who don't know, was asked to be the tour manager for the Santa Barbara band Rebelution. For those of you not familiar with them, they are a California Reggae band that my brother has knows since he went to SBCC. They are great live and have been the #2 (Bob Marley's Legend is #1) Reggae album on Itunes for almost eight months. I had a great time with him and some of the guys earlier this week. Unfortunately their RV got broken into, and they had some electronics stolen. Total bummer, but the show must go on, and they played a great set at the Highline Ballroom here in NYC.
The Dakota: The home of John Lennon. This is just a few blocks from my house. Across the street is Central Park and Strawberry Fields!

My bro's home anway from home.



Here are some other pictures of my adventures in the past week or so!





Random Ocean Spray Cranberry display outside of the NBC building

Park in China Town where the grandparents play games all day.

My main transportation...the subway and my feet!

Lady Liberty. I found myself at the NYSE around 4 p.m. on Friday. Needless to say it was a somber day and week on Wall Street. They had the entrances to the NYSE barricaded!

Shawn scored me 4th row tickets to see Ray Lamontagne at Radio City. I took Sofia, and we had a great time!! The best part was I didn't tell her where the seats were. He was her reaction:

One of Shawn's friends had suggested if it was a nice NY day, we should head to The Frying Pan, a famous NYC landmark. Sunday was beautiful, and we headed down to Chelsea (26th and Westside) for Bloody Mary's and Burgers. The view and food were great!