Christmastime in the City

Christmastime is here and last week I spent a day in New York City with my kids.

I’ve wanted to do it for years, and this year I finally made plans to take the annual Borgata bus trip to NYC.

Of course at the last minute Neil Young made plans too…to do a big Sandy benefit concert at Borgata…on the very same day.

Just my luck, but I had already promised my kids we’d see NYC at Christmastime. And maybe, just maybe, I would make it back in time to see a bit of the concert. Wishful thinking…

As usual, I didn’t pay much attention to details. I figured the buses would leave from the back of the house by the employee entrance. I saw buses when we got there (and boy, they were really nice too!), but no one was in sight. It was then I realized our bus was at the front entrance, after we almost ended up on Neil Young’s tour bus.

Now that would have made for a pretty interesting day, don’t you think? But I had to be a good mom and take my kids (and myself) to the Big Apple. Plus I imagine they would have been pretty disappointed if I ditched the trip now.

So off to NYC we went, and it was even better than I had remembered it! Seeing the city during the holidays is truly wonderful. It’s almost surreal. It’s like watching a movie that’s filmed in the City, and you’re right smack in the middle of it. Times Square, Broadway, 42nd Street, 5th Avenue…every street looks familiar and you just try to take it all in (without bumping into people constantly). No doubt I looked like a tourist for sure.

But the best part of the day was at the end of it, when the sun went down. The city that never sleeps was lit up with Christmas lights twinkling everywhere you looked. And we saved the best for last. We returned to Rockefeller Center after dark to see the tree one more time. I wanted to stay there for hours and watch the skaters and look up in awe at the incredible tree.

But all good things must end, and we had to say goodbye to NYC…till next time. After all, I had a concert to catch…and I did.