The weather outside was frightful...

... but the city was sooo delightful!

I love NYC but boy, oh boy, I'm not so sure the city likes us! We were in NYC a few years ago for Christmas and on that trip, the temperatire hovered around 5'F. We were in NYC again before and after our wedding, and the temperature was approximately 100'F. On this trip... oh, about 20'F. I wonder if we'll ever experience NY with 'normal' temperatures!!

We didn't do too much while in NYC itself as it was exceedingly cold on the only complete day that we did have there, but we had fun despite the cold. We walked from our hotel on 48th and 8th down to the Manhattan Mall and then over to Macy's to see the Christmas windows and enjoy the big Christmas sales. With the economy in such turmoil, the stores were doing everything possible to sell, sell, sell, which meant tons of bargains everywhere - hurray!!

At the Manhattan Mall, we were both happy and sad to see that one of our favorite stores, Steve & Barry's, was going out of business. Sad because Ole's entire family fell in love with the store when they were in New York for our wedding. Why? Well, if you've never been there, the store's mantra was "3 for $20!" - yes, three items of clothing for $20. When you're used to DK pricing, or even ANY pricing for that matter, 3 for $20 is a wonderful thing. And we're not talking junk clothes either - the store resembled an Old Navy and had awesome jeans, sweatshirts, etc. The prices were awesome, but perhaps their pricing also explains why they are now going out of business!

Happy, however, because the prices were even lower for the big sell-out and we took full advantage; we are now the proud owners of several college sweatshirts. It didn't matter to us what state was strewn across the front - it mattered only that we were purchasing big heavyweight sweatshirts for... wait for it...

$3.99

Yeppers - what a steal!

We had dinner at the Olive Garden (one of my favs!) in Times Square, looking down on the yellow sea of taxis and spent some hours just relaxing in our room. We didn't do all the 'normal' Christmas things in NYC but for us, it was just perfect. Here are a few pics from our adventure - including a rather frightening self-portrait!!