It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!!!!

In the Mobley household, we decorate for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving...always.  We need to squeeze in as much holiday cheer into those 31 days following Turkey Day as humanly possible.  However, as you can tell from previous blog posts, I'm very strict about fully appreciating the joys of Thanksgiving before moving on to the next holiday.  So I've chosen to write separate entries as to not take anything away from my favorite harvest holiday.  The next month will absolutely be a barrage of holiday activities that the Mobleys will be participating in over the course of the month.  So each blog until January will no doubt have a Christmas theme. I just wanted to warn you of that, because it is....after all...the most wonderful time of the year.  

Immediately after wrapping up a festive trip to Connecticut, Mike and I headed back to Manhattan with a little extra cargo in our car.  My brother & his girlfriend Jen accompanied us to the city for a quick day trip before they headed back to Dallas.  Now, being a host/tour guide to people visiting Manhattan can often be a very daunting task as there are limitless options for things to do in the city.  But when it's Christmas time...it's even MORE stressful.  There is literally an overload of things to see/do in Manhattan around Christmas.  There is ice skating at Rockefellar, Macy's storefront windows, decorations on Fifth Avenue, Radio city Rockettes, lights on Park Ave, and decorations on every street corner you see. So to simplify it for myself, my only task was to bring Jenny and Garret as much festivity as possible in the one day we had together in the city.

We took them to the Union Square Christmas fair which reminded me of a similar fair Michael and I went to in Ireland last year.  There were booths of hand knitted hats, home made chocolates, silky scarves, and loads of quirky New York art.  One could get lost in the fair for hours.  But the major event of the evening was our dinner at Rolf's...arguably New York's best decorated establishment for Christmas.  In fact, I'm going to go as far as saying it's the most festive place in New York City.  So what better way to kick off the season than some mulled wine, eggnog and some holiday schapps????  The food is questionable....but it was still fun to sit in their Disney-like booths and order delicious drinks.  The Rolfs dinner was quickly followed by a mini pub crawl to some of the most elaborately decorated bars in all of Gramercy Park.  Yes, it was only about a 4 block radius, but I sometimes feel like our quaint little neighborhood has a lot to offer, and we don't spend much time going out around there at night.

The first Mobley Christmas Tree!

The next morning was met with a bit of sadness as Garrett & Jen headed back to Dallas.  But there is no better way to battle the "end of a vacation blues" than to bust out the Christmas decorations from storage!!!! And while New York City may not have the most festive Christmas Tree lots, we picked out one of the most beautiful trees I've ever seen and carried it 3 blocks back to our humble abode.  We never had a real tree growing up in California, and while it made our lives much easier during the clean up, there are few things as festive as the smell of a real live Noble Fir sparkling with shiny white lights.

Winston decorating his tree

Over the past 3 Christmases that we have spent together, we have collected quite a few ornaments and it's always so fun to unpack them and remember the years prior.  And every year I am surprised by how many decorations we have, and how many more we end up buying.
Mike and I try to stay in town over the month of December so that we can enjoy everything that Manhattan has to offer during the Christmas season (come Jan/Feb, I'll be taking every chance I can get to get the hell out of dodge).  So we can't wait to share with you our first Christmas together as the Mobleys.  Let the festivities begin!