My Sixth Month as a New Yorker

Whew. December was a busy month. By the time Christmas rolled around, I felt as though I had successfully "petted" the entire holiday season to death. I saw the holiday window displays more times than I can count, braved the crowds at Rockefeller Center more times than I ever needed to and watched all of the Christmas movies (including repeat viewings of Home Alone 2).

On Christmas morning I opened a few presents, watched the SNL Christmas special, went to the movies (American Hustle) and had dim sum for dinner in Chinatown like a good New Yorker. It was a pretty anticlimactic end to the holidays, but it felt like the perfect way to spend my first New York Christmas.

A few highlights from the rest of my December:

I discovered a new, beautiful place in Central Park on one of my many weekend walks, saw the holiday windows (Bergdorf's were my favorite, but the Saks Yeti is pretty charming), happened upon a vintage subway car and took it a few stops out of my way, enjoyed my first apartment tree in the company of the Pigeon Lady and tried my first ever "fancy" ramen (it was good!).

I ate nuggets breaded with Cheez-its, found Meryl on 14th Street, my Uncle visited for the second time since I moved and we had box seats at the opera, I introduced him to the delight that is Absolute Bagels, we took a tour of Gracie Mansion before the DeBlasio's move in, and I braved Macy's to go Christmas shopping on my lunch break.

I went to my first-ever corporate Christmas party at the Roosevelt Hotel and ate cake while everyone else danced, we went to Dyker Heights to marvel at their oh-so-tacky-but-amazing Christmas light displays, I took a magical snowy walk through Central Park and made some friends with some beautiful cardinals, I hosted a Christmas Vacation viewing party complete with moose mugs filled with spiked nog and I sent out a New York-themed package as part of the Christmas City Swap.

I walked by the beautiful Bryant Park tree every day, finally noticed the creepy glowing-eyed owls outside of Macy's, pushed my way through the crowds at Rockefeller Center to get my tree photo, had a weekend visit from a friend who wanted to see a Banksy, took her on a tour of obscure movie filming locations, including the arch in Central Park from Home Alone 2, and tried out Georgetown Cupcakes (meh).

We saw the tree at Washington Square, walked the Brooklyn Bridge and became obsessed with all of the locks, visited Carrie Bradshaw's apartment on Perry Street, went to the holiday train show at the New York Botanical Garden (I also became a member!), explored the Cathedral of St. John the Divine and I had my first hot-dog-and-papaya-juice experience at Papaya King for Christmas Eve dinner.

I enjoyed new (and old) gifts, saw an amazing sunset in Chinatown on Christmas day, visited the Bergdorf's windows one last time and was creeped out by "Groundhog Day," waited in line to see Barney's "Floating City" display and spent a rainy day with friends going back in time at the New York Transit Museum.

I'll be posting a recap of 2013 in the next few days, and it's an understatement to say that this year was eventful. I spent a full two-thirds of this year actually living in New York, and it was all better than I'd ever even imagined it would be. I look forward to starting a new, full year living and breathing and loving and dreaming in the city of my dreams. The first six months have been some of the best of my life — here's to many, many more.