Ugly Sweater Run 2014

 The best way to kick off the Holiday season . . . take part in the Ugly Sweater Run! Mary and Dean joined us in this merriest of 5k's and we had a jolly good time.

Love the knit caps we got for participating! And the giant Santa . . .which looked more like a giant gnome.

It was fun running with everyone in our christmas gear.

A couple of christmas elves. Jeff is way better at heel clicking than I am.

We had a lot of fun running with all of the other Holiday Cheermeisters and sporting our best Christmas sweaters. We will definitely do this again. Happy Holidays everyone!

Boston Book Club Part III - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

We held another HP Boston Book Club meeting to discuss the third volume of the Harry Potter series: Prisoner of Azkaban. We each thought of five trivia questions as we read the book and brought them to the meeting to test each other. We also got rid of the remainder of our Halloween candy which was a plus haha. Great discussions, great company, great times with fellow Potterheads. I love it!

We solemnly swear that we are up to no good.

New York Again

One year later! I guess we've got an annual trip to New York in November! My mom likes to visit New York for her birthday and I was lucky enough to get time off over Veteran's Day weekend to spend a nice chunk of time there with her. Jeff was planning to come as well, but he got scheduled to work on a client ... in Ohio. Bummer. But it made for a nice girls week in lovely NYC. This time we stayed in a beautiful brownstone located in the southern part of Harlem, not far north of central park. It was a really cool experience.

Such a cool neighborhood!

The apartment had so much character. Those Victorians knew what they were doing when they built these places. 

View from our apartment. Every morning I would wake up and say, "hello New York!"

Our little Harlem Hideaway.

Private patio complete with fall foliage.

We walked all the way up 5th Ave, also known as "museum mile" passing the Museum of Natural History, the MET, the Guggenheim, and many more. We went into the MET but turned around after about a minute because of how crowded it was.

Museum of Natural History

Instead we decided to check out the Museum of the City of New York, which turned out to be a great pick! It had just the right amount of exhibits, not too overwhelming, and it was so informative about the changing landscape and people of New York. One of the exhibits was a really well done documentary video narrated by Stanley Tucci about how New York has transformed over the centuries and decades. Plus the building itself was gorgeous. I was so engaged that I forgot to take any pictures while we were there. That's the sign of a good museum if you ask me : ) Take my word for it and visit the Museum of the City of New York.

We spent a nice morning in Central Park.

Shakespeare's Garden in Central Park, so lovely to walk through!

I didn't know this prior to this trip, but there is a castle in Central Park. Belvedere Castle! We came upon it just after walking through Shakespeare's Garden, climbed its winding staircases and were rewarded with some gorgeous views of the park and city below.

One of the things on my checklist for this trip was to walk across the BROOKLYN BRIDGE. I've been fascinated with this bridge, the effort it took to create it and how iconic it is to the New York skyline, so this was a highlight of the trip for me.

The Brooklyn Bridge allowed people, for the first time in NYC, to live somewhere different than the place they worked.

Sweet land of Liberty

We also got to host our very own dinner party in Manhattan, with Jazz music and guests! Steve and Ariel Martin, who I knew in college and who moved to New York after school, came for a visit. It was fun to meet up with friends in NYC.

Great to catch up with old friends!

We also got tickets to the View! It was a fun show to attend - so fun to see Whoopie Goldberg, and the guest of the day was Drew Barrymoore! Plus they gave the whole audience a $100 gift card to Target!

Yes, Drew Barrymore was on the show too! I like her even more after seeing her in person.

Another memorable moment from this trip was going up to the observation deck at the Empire State Building. The view from the top was pretty impressive. 

It was a nice week with my ma. Glad we had the opportunity to spend this time together!