Our girls were up for school yesterday, eating their breakfast, when we told them you are not going to school today, you are going to the City! Woo Hoo!

Due to budget cuts, and a mean and nasty retired Superintendent (sorry, couldn’t help myself), our children have no class trips this year. We told our girls, forget that, we will do our own field trips, and yesterday was trip one!

So, as much as it was really about enjoying the city at Christmas time, we did take time for lessons, about history and architecture and being aware of all of the different jobs people have.

Even though I had not yet wrapped a present or even sent a Christmas card (shameful!), I left it all behind and headed to the city.

So, since today is now the day that I need to wrap all of those presents, and send those cards, I am going to share some pictures quickly. There will be no watermark, or no border, just some pictures.

All but ten years of my life, I have lived within an hour or so of NYC and I had never been to the top of the Empire State Building, until yesterday.

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To keep things simple, I only brought our cheap point and shoot and you can not turn the flash off and it doesn’t take the greatest pictures, so bear with me.

A bloggers dream, a candy city scene…

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A few funny moments, M trying to get up on the railing to have a picture taken, and then the picture, too cute,my loves!

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We were up on the bench posing for a picture, when we realized we were in the way of another picture being taken, so we ducked. My husband snapped a shot, it was a fun moment.

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Again, the pictures are terrible, but the windows at Tiffany were stunning. These pictures do not do them justice, but everything was made from book pages.

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Did you know you can make your own Muppet at FAO Schwarz? It was actually half price yesterday, but we just enjoyed the concept and kept going. If my Grandfather was still alive, that so would have been a present for him. We always watched the Muppets together.

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The windows at Bergdorf Goodman’s were my favorite, filled with vintage elements.

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What probably was my favorite of the day was the Fendi building. Can you see the detail of the belts wrapped around the building, stunning.

I tried to explain to my husband how lucky he was that I don’t actually want a Fendi belt, but that I just appreciate their display for the simple design aspect of it. He didn’t get it…

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This needs no explanation…

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We covered a lot of ground, all on foot. We went into Macy’s, FAO Schwarz, and a minute in Henry Bendell (too crowded, left quickly), but other than that we focused on being in the city. We had an amazing lunch, a simple dinner, walked through St. Patrick’s Cathedral and of course, the Empire State Building.

When it was all said and done, we were all pooped, but we still were smiling…

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Wish me luck on my wrapping!!! Ho, Ho, Ho!!!

December 21, 2010 — Laura Putnam