Girls' Christmas Trip to New York City - Year Two

For our second annual post-Christmas girls’ trip to New York City, we planned to stay two nights in the city.  We stayed at the same hotel - the Shelburne Hotel by Affinia - and it was even better than our first stay.  They offered us a free upgrade to a suite, but all of the suites were full, so they gave us two adjoining rooms for the price of one.  We actually called Zach and the boys to see if they wanted to join us in all of our extra space, but they weren’t able to so I quite enjoyed having my own room!

Having done all of the first-timer Christmas-in-New-York attractions last year, we were able to get a little more creative and explore some different things in the city.

Our Highlights:

Day 1:
- arrived at the hotel mid afternoon, settled in, and spent some time studying the map with the girls and circling things we wanted to do
- American Girl store
- dinner and frozen hot chocolate at Serendipity - reserve your spot online and then make your way there.  We still had a short wait when we arrived, but totally manageable and #worthit

Day 2:
- breakfast at Bagel Express
- Color Factory!  The most fun thing we did this year, and the only thing we planned and bought tickets for in advance.  We loved it!
- wandered around Soho and the Village - poked around the NYU Bookstore, got hot cocoa at the biggest Starbucks the girls have ever seen, people watched in Washington Square Park
- checked out the Beautycounter shop on Prince Street
- cookies from MILK Bar and giant slices of New York pizza
- Big Apple Circus with Gammy, Riri, and cousin Clem, with dinner afterwards nearby

Day 3:
- Breakfast at Ellen’s Stardust Diner - we got there early and waited about 30 minutes in drizzly rain. The food was mediocre but the girls loved it and got the biggest kick out of the singing and entertainment.
- Rockefeller Center tree
- FAO Schwartz

We took the train back to Rowayton for a quick goodbye to Gammy and Riri before driving home.  Another great girls’ getaway!