Santaland

Macy's Santaland was on our Christmas to-do list, and we were able to check it off last week.

Macy's looks amazing this time of year.



Here is Bryan, excited for what Santaland has to offer.



Can anyone tell whether these are Santa Bears? If my friend Libby is reading this, I'm sure she would be able to recognize them (she had a collection when we were younger, and I was always jealous!).



For some reason, we didn't exactly put two and two together, and were surprised at the fact that we got to meet Santa at the end of Santaland! He even asked what was on our wish list. Going to Santaland, of course!

Christmas in Brooklyn

We read about a neighborhood in Brooklyn called Dyker Heights, which is apparently known for going all out with Christmas decorations. Since you don't see many single family homes in Manhattan, we were excited to venture out to a "normal" neighborhood.

The traffic in the neighborhood was congested! Looks like we weren't the only ones who had heard of Dyker Heights.



The houses were...well, some were beautiful, some were gaudy, some were cute. It's hard to generalize. This one in particular seemed to have so many lawn ornaments, you could barely see a lawn!



We enjoyed walking around the area and getting in the Christmas spirit - especially since we can't even fit a Christmas tree in our apartment, let alone decorate a front yard!

Josh Groban

As some of you may know, the holidays are a very special time for a very special Josh Groban fan - Bryan. Every holiday season, one of Bryan's favorite activities is popping in the Josh Groban Christmas CD (yes, the CD we own) and sarcastically belting out the tunes (off-key), especially O Holy Night. So when we saw that Josh Groban was going to be at the Apple Store in Soho, we couldn't miss the opportunity for a free concert.

A very cozy space.



Here is Josh performing - he couldn't hit a wrong note!



Believe it or not, Josh was a pretty funny, self-deprecating kind of guy, which surprised us. The whole evening exceeded our expectations.

Premiere Fever

For some reason, New York City has premiere fever. It seems almost every night there is an opportunity to attend a movie premiere and we are taking advantage.

We start with Rabbit Hole which premiered at the Paris Theater.



We got into this one and as we were standing line for popcorn, we noticed Jon Hamm in the line ahead of us! Here is the best "sneaky" cell phone picture we got:



The after-party was happening at the Plaza Hotel across the street. We tried to get in but apparently you need special after-party tickets. Oops!



Because we only had a cell phone camera at the Rabbit Hole premiere, we didn't get any good pictures of the two stars: Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart. Luckily, Aaron and Nicole were giving a talk at the Apple store in Soho the next night where we did get to snap some photos.







Also premiering at the Paris Theater was The Company Men with Ben Affleck.



They weren't giving out extra tickets to this one but we hung around in the cold to see Ben... and it looks like he saw us.

Premiere #3 was The Tourist which we did not expect to get into.

With Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt and Johnny Depp attending, we knew this one would be crazy. As luck would have it, we scored two tickets! We didn't see Johnny Depp but got some pictures of this celebrity couple.

The most recent premiere we attended was The Fighter at the SVA Theater. Actually, they called this a "screening" even though all the actors in the movie were there.

We saw Mark Wahlberg and Amy Adams but even better, we got a picture of Mrs. Brady!

Christian Bale

Even though Will Call told me a couple times that they didn't have extra tickets, we hung around long enough to get two! I think they felt bad for us for standing in the cold.

Overall, we've been very lucky to get into several movies (for free) and see some celebrities!

Rockefeller Center Tree Lighting

The week after Thanksgiving, we braved the crowds and went to the Rockefeller Center Tree Lighting. We did not want to spend much time waiting outside, so we planned on showing up a little after 8:00 p.m. (lighting time was supposedly around 9:00 p.m.). Once we got off the subway and into the Rockefeller Center area, we realized that we probably should have arrived at about 5:00 p.m.! We were re-routed by the police/barricades numerous times and smooshed against people around us. After waiting in a huddle near an area of sidewalk that was open (but barricaded off, for some unknown reason), the police finally allowed us to flood into the section directly across the street from the tree. Bryan and I got separated in the craziness, but we were both able to see the lighting when it happened. When the tree lit up, you could hear oooo's and ahhh's all around. When the lighting was over, everyone wanted to get out of there within 3 seconds (of course), and a cat fight broke out nearby. Sounds about right!

Despite the chaos before and after the lighting, we had a good time. It was a true New York experience, I guess: lots of people, lots of pushing, lots of police, and lots of fun.

Love and Other Drugs Premiere

Happy belated Thanksgiving! We have been terrible about posting on here lately, but now that we're back from Thanksgiving vacation and into the swing of things again, we'll play catch-up with our posts.

Before Thanksgiving, we tried to get into the "Love and Other Drugs" premiere. Unfortunately, we did not get into the movie, but we did get front row for the red carpet action! We were so close Bryan actually had to back up to get some of the pictures!

Anne Hathaway was lovely and very kind to the fans.





Jake Gyllenhaal also seemed nice. Talk about a million dollar smile!

Jamie-Lynn Sigler was also there. (Meadow Soprano)

Looks like they're having fun!

The Next Three Days

We thought we were pushing our luck last week with trying to get into The Next Three Days premiere, but we gave it a try anyway. Good news! We got in!



Before the movie, Bryan got some pictures of the red carpet action, including Elizabeth Banks...



...and Russell Crowe!

Once we got into the theater, it was clear we would look like freaks if we took out our camera and snapped photos of the celebrities. Everyone there seemed so classy - we didn't know how to behave! Long story short, we did not get a picture of Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Adrien Brody, or Edward Norton, who were also there. We were bummed, but it was worth it to look like we were in the right place. The movie was very entertaining - I had to close my eyes a couple times it was so scary!

Aquarium

Do I really need to introduce this post when I have a beginning picture like this?

Yes, recently we went to the New York Aquarium to learn from marine biologists about the scientific wonders of the ocean. Ok, actually I just wanted to see some sharks and Alyssa thinks penguins are cute.

Alyssa got her picture with some stars and we weren't even at a premiere!

I think this is called a cowfish. What would two of them be called - cattlefish?

Jellyfish. Kinda gross looking but the tank allowed for cool pictures.

This was another get-in-free-with-our-bank-card day, and we definitely took advantage of it and had a great time.

Four M's Sunday

Last Sunday was an action-packed day for us: The Met, The Marathon, The MoMA, and Morning Glory!

Our bank card allowed us free admission to The Met the first weekend of the month, so we arrived early, hoping to see a few new things.







After wandering around The Met, we walked to Central Park to catch part of the New York City Marathon. We were at Mile 24, and the runners made it look like the easiest thing they'd ever done. It made us feel quite lazy.

Plenty to drink....



...and plenty of runners!

After the marathon, we made our way over to the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), hoping to take advantage of what's left of our membership (only a couple more months and we'll no longer be New Yorkers!). No pictures to share, but it was one of our M's for the day.

Finally, that evening, we lucked out again and got into the Morning Glory premiere! I doubt Bryan can say the same, but this was one of my favorite premieres. I loved the movie, the actors and actresses lived up (and exceeded) what I hoped they would be like in person, and the vibe was very celebratory. No complaints.

Jeff Goldblum - Bryan wanted to ask him about chaos theory.

For all you Modern Family fans - Ty Burrell. We love this guy, and he seemed as likeable in person as his character on the show.

Diane Keaton, looking very young.

Rachel McAdams, as a blonde!

The one, the only - Harrison Ford.

The group! I love how Harrison Ford seems more concerned with eating his popcorn than taking this group picture. That would be me if I ever got famous.

We had to walk through Times Square on our way to the subway, and I was excited when I saw the huge Morning Glory advertisements.

If only the next M (Monday) could be as fun!