Christmas in the City

On Saturday we headed to one of the busiest places in the city; Times Square. But seeing the light in all its splendor did put us in a great holiday mood. We met p with some friends from Cornell and started walking towards the West side hoping to find a good restaurant. Not wanting to walk too far, we settled on Brazil Grill. It was not too crowded and offered many seafood inspired dishes with a southern twist in addition to all the meat entrées. I had ceviche served in a coconut shell, which was very refreshing.

We took advantage of being in Times Square to visit the Pop Tarts Store, which was following the trend of the M&M store. We decided $5 was too much for a pop tart and walked away empty. On our way to a friend's holiday party on the UES, we decided to walk through 5th Avenue and see the much hyped store fronts. Saks was elaborate with several scenes depicted at each window. With a bunch of tv screens, Bloomingdales was boring and lazy. I loved this light fixture from Dior. The glimpse of the Rockefeller tree was festive as expected.

What I really enjoyed were the stalls at Bryant Park that seems to be the closest thing to a christmas market in NY. We had a few different things to eat and browsed through a few holiday stores. The skating rink had a very long waiting line. There were even ping pong tables set up on one side of the park. It was a great, relatively warm winter night, perfect for enjoying the sights of NYC.

In between activities in the evening,, we watched Black Swan, one of the most notable movies of the year. Natalie Portman was excellent in this role with shades. It was a thinking movie and I couldn't stop myself from reading as many reviews afterwards.