It's Christmas Time In The City

Rather than plead for your forgiveness for my lack of blogging this week, I offer these photos from my spectacular trip into New York City today as penance, done in somewhat of a picture-or-two-or-three-an-hour fashion.

8:00 AM - Luke and I arrive at Grand Central Terminal, all prettily decked out for the holidays.

9:00 AM - We make a much needed stop at Starbucks before delving into our shopping adventures. The first store on our agenda? H&M, where I purchase several fantastic items that you will surely see soon. Luke gets a few things too.

10:00 AM - Next is J. Crew, where Luke buys khakis and a gorgeous deep red sweater. I am wearing my beautiful new black wool Banana Republic pea coat (well, sort of new, I found it at the thrift shop).

11:00 AM - Our final shopping locale is Forever 21, where I make four heavily laden trips to the dressing room and leave the store with a brimming bag. I almost literally screamed with delight when I found these Missoni Fall 2009 lookalike leggings. And I should mention that I purchased four pairs of leggings today. Craziness.

12:00 PM - In dire need of sustenance, we stumble into a cozy and beautifully decorated Irish pub near Herald Square for lunch. I have the yummiest crock of French onion soup and some of the best chicken fingers of my life. During lunch I flip through the Forever 21 magazine and see some of my favorite bloggers featured!

1:00 PM - Luke and I take the subway up to Bryant Park, where it starts to snow. I had never been before and it's quite a sweet little area, sort of a much less frenzied version of Rockefeller Center. There we meet up with Sylvia (who is wearing her magnificent Christmas sweater) and our friend Chris!

2:00 PM - The four of us trek through flurries and blustering wind back to Grand Central, where we buy our last coffees and snacks and head back home.

This was the first time I had properly shopped at real stores since the summer, and it was so much fun. I think I spent more money at once than I ever have, which felt slightly revolting but also pretty appropriate. It's the holiday season!

After being insanely busy this past week, I now have only two and a half days of school left until winter break. I already feel like a huge load is being lifted off my shoulder, and I will definitely not be taking any more six-day breaks from the blog. I missed it very much.