My Thanksgiving in New York with Family

Long post is long. Below details what I did for Thanksgiving with family. I'm placing the video somewhere in the middle.

I was in New York from Thursday to Saturday afternoon. We stayed at Affinia Manhattan near Madison Square Garden. We purposely arrived at around 12 noon so we would miss the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade on 34th street. We also ran into the Heintz Ketchup van giving away free fries and ketchup in their new packaging (patent still pending). After getting settled in the hotel, we met with my aunt and went to Chinatown to eat at Hop Kee Restaurant. We ordered lots of food. We finished most of it. I was full full. Afterwards, we went shopping for a bit, bought food and then went to Broadway street to watch Promises, Promises.

1. Lots and lots of dishes at Hop Kee in Chinatown. 2. My sister dubbed this the three generation photo: me, grandpa, and my mom.

By shear luck, I managed to buy tickets for one the left side of of the stage just on J10. Not too far or too close to the Orchestra section. My parents bought a front row center seat for my grandpa. Due to change of plans and to anticipate my grandpa's questions and possible bathroom breaks, they decided to have him seat next to them in the 3rd row. My sister was going to sit in the front row, but she decided to give the front row seat to me. She knew I'm a fan of Sean Hayes... and Kristen Chenoweth.

Promises, Promises Poster

I was dead center in the middle close to the orchestra conductor. The lady sitting next to me was a retired teacher from West Virginia. She was watching 5 plays that weekend. She talked a lot, but I think that made the experience much better for me. Usually I keep to myself and don't start conversations with strangers, but I'm glad this woman did. So many actors/actresses I saw up close that night. The performance was wonderful. Every time Kristen sang, I had goosebumps. When she sang "A House Is Not A Home" I felt like screaming. I had to hold myself back. When the play was done, they went and bowed at the end of the stage. If I reached my hand out, I was literally 3-4 feet away from touching them. After the play, we went around Rockefeller Plaza and Time Square to take pictures with my grandpa on the red-lighted stairs in the middle. Great night. And this was just Thursday.

On Friday my parents woke up early and took my grandpa shopping with them. They also took him to the Empire State building. I woke up at around 10:30AM. My siblings are still in the hotel and we decided to take a trip to Queens to eat at Jollibee and Red Ribbon. Jollibee was packed, so we ate at Red Ribbon. After eating there, we headed back to Jollibee, ordered food for take-out AND... ate again lol. We left and took the food back to the hotel and head out again to SoHo for some shopping. The subways were packed. Uniqlo was packed. In fact, the entire SoHo district was packed. I didn't get to buy anything, but my siblings did. We left and headed back to Macy's on 34th street. I forgot the Men's section was in another building, connected by a passageway on the third floor. I was too tired to go there and didn't bother. We walked back to the hotel and met my parents and grandpa to head towards Toni Di Napoli restaurant. I noticed Cakalusa checked in to the Apple Restaurant on Facebook which was pretty close to Toni Di Napoli. Another night of fun and full eating.

1. Mom, dad, and grandpa. 2. Me (My eyes disappear when I smile). 3. My younger and youngest sister. 4. Whole family

We left the restaurant afterwards and walked towards Bryant Park. I realized I left my scarf and gloves, so I sprinted back to the restaurant. My siblings and I decided to go ice skating. It was then when my parents decided to head back to the hotel with my grandpa. First things first: My siblings and haven't tried ice skating before. My only experience to fall back on are in-line skates... which I'm not as good at to begin with. My youngest sister had no prior experience whatsoever. I taught my younger sister in-line skating at a very young age. Still, these are not the same as ice skating. Ice skating is more precise. We stayed pretty close on the side railings. I got more adventurous and decided to treat it as in-line skating. It did help, but it's not the same. After a few rounds, I was able to go faster and faster. The final go-around the ice skating rink was only less than 2 minutes. We had fun and we didn't fall at all.

On Saturday morning, everybody else left early for some last minute shopping before checking out of the hotel. I stayed and slept for some needed rest. After checking out, we headed inside Penn Station and waited for our train. When the train arrived, I forgot my bag was near my feet. When I tried to walk, I tripped banged my head and my side. I think I'm OK. We're back home now and just doing laundry.
It was a great Thanksgiving weekend. For things I'm thankful for:

• I'm thankful for having free time to spend Thanksgiving weekend with my entire family and my grandpa.
• I'm thankful for buying tickets with Amtrak instead of Metrobus. If I took the Metrobus, I'd probably be stuck in long traffic at the Delaware toll-road.
• I'm thankful for my sister for giving me the front row seat to Promises, Promises :)
• I'm thankful for Saturday, spending time with my siblings.
• I'm thankful for having strong bones to withstand that fall I had in the train station earlier, cushioning a could have been harder blow to my head on the floor.
• I'm thankful for my mom, my dad, my grandad, and my siblings for worrying about me when I fell.
• I'm thankful for friends... you guys are awesome.
• Too many things I'm thankful for to list.

I'm done.