Grand Central Holiday Light Show

Last week I had some time to kill while waiting to get dinner with Trent, so I stopped into Grand Central Terminal to see the Holiday Light Show. It takes place on the west side of the Terminal, so for optimal views I recommend standing in the Apple Store, as close to the center staircase as possible. There were a few people taking photographs with nicer cameras, but be warned that the Apple store associates will ask you to put away your tripod if you bring one.

I read that the show runs "for 30 minutes from 5 - 10pm," but I couldn't really discern any reliable time table. The lights were on the whole time I was there, but actual scrolling details began about 5:20 and lasted for about 10 minutes. It's nothing super extravagant, but at such a large scale and in such a beautiful space, I couldn't help but be wowed a little bit.

Scrolling text wishes you a "Happy Holidays from Metro North," spells out "GCT" and the numbers "100," since this is Grand Central's 100th anniversary year. The red and blue trains were cute and obviously appropriate, and the huge flag design was nice. Mostly it was just a lot of color changing and raining colors, and it was really fun to watch how the lighting dramatically changed, not just in the windows but in the entire space.

The light show is free (obviously) and is running now through December 26th. After Thanksgiving the show will become more Christmas themed, but right now there's a lot of reds, oranges and yellows which I assume is their interpretation of "Thanksgiving themed." I'm interested to see how it changes for Christmas, and I'm hoping for at least a few seconds of giant, falling snowflakes.

The Great Jack O'Lantern Blaze

One of the very first things we did when we were planning our trip to Tarrytown/Sleepy Hollow, was book our tickets for the Great Jack O'Lantern Blaze. The hugely popular event sells out quickly, with some of the more in-demand dates (weekends close to Halloween) and times snatched up before fall even begins. When we went to book our tickets (in September) the only weekend time available before Halloween was Sunday, October 27th at 9pm. We grabbed them, and planned our day around the Blaze. I'm so, SO glad we did because it was definitely the highlight of the trip, and a great way to end the night.

I actually discovered the Blaze a few years ago when I was still living in Ohio. I obsessively read all about it (including their hilarious faq page) and tried desperately to figure out a way to make an October trip to the Hudson Valley happen. Fast forward a few years, I'm living much closer to the action and one of my friends mentions that he'd like to take a trip to Sleepy Hollow in the fall. He had never heard of the Blaze before, but it didn't take much convincing to get him (and then the rest of our group) to trust my enthusiasm enough to book our tickets more than a month in advance.

In all of my planning and research I had somehow misread the descriptions, and initially thought that there were 500 pumpkins, which seemed like a lot to me. That is, until I read it correctly and realized the Blaze featured more than five THOUSAND hand carved and lighted pumpkins. Turns out that only about 1,000 of those are real — the rest are plastic, carveable "funkins" and reused year after year. This really doesn't affect the integrity of the event, however, and it's nearly impossible to even tell which ones are real and which are fake. As far as I could tell all of the ones closest to the path were definitely real and it's so dark and they're SO BRIGHT AND SHINY, so who cares in the end. Seriously, the entire thing was dazzling and even though I was there I still can't really fathom that I saw more than 5,000 pumpkins.

There were your standard, "face" carvings (in every variety you can think of, and then some), but the more elaborate displays really stole the show. It's impossible to pick favorites — from dinosaurs and zoo animals, to witches, mummies, skeletons, spiders, bees, bats and an entire yard of cat pumpkins (ok, I might have actually squealed with delight upon seeing so many cat pumpkins) — there was definitely something for everyone.

There was a grandfather clock with a swinging pendulum, jack-in-the-boxes with pop-up pumpkin heads and a new-this-year, walk-through tunnel lined with hundreds of carved pumpkins.

The event was very nicely controlled, with a winding, roped off path that you followed through the entire grounds. This made sense to protect the pumpkins, but also gave you unobstructed views of every single carving. The low-light does make it difficult to get great photos (with an iPhone at least), but please don't be one of those people that thinks turning the flash on will give you a Pulitzer-prize winning shot. All it actually does is give you a crappy, washed out photo of pumpkins, where you can't even see the carvings and the person next to you can't see anything at all for a few minutes.

There was a bottle-neck at one point in the pathway, where we had to wait about fifteen minutes to keep moving, but otherwise the night was as smooth as can be, especially considering the crowd. Parking was free (always a plus), and there's a tent to wait in until your admission time, although we were allowed in a few minutes before nine.

We had just eaten dinner so we didn't partake in any of the food, although had I known that they had apple cider donuts I definitely would have come home with some. They even sell a soundtrack made up of original music composed specifically for the Blaze (they're on volume IIalready). The displays change a bit every year, so I definitely want to make the Blaze an annual tradition — especially now that I'm only a short Metro-North train ride away.

Happy Halloween!

Macy's Fireworks

I've only been a New Yorker for five days, but I've already managed to do a ton of things I've never done before. Yesterday I fit a few firsts into one day: my first time cutting my jeans into shorts (it was pretty hot, to say the least), my first time traveling to New Jersey (not on my way back to Ohio), and my first time seeing the Macy's fireworks in person.

After pretty much a lifetime of watching it on TV, I finally got to see the Thanksgiving parade in real life last November. It was much better to experience first hand, but I think even more is lost in translation when you watch the fireworks on TV. In person, they were spectacular. A major part of the entire fireworks experience is the noise, the crowds, being outside, smelling the smoke and really feeling the explosions as if they were happening inside of your own chest cavity. 

My friend Trent suggested that we take a ferry to New Jersey and watch them from Weehawken, and it turned out to be an amazing spot. For the last five years the fireworks have been over the Hudson, but I'm hoping they return to the East River eventually so I can watch them from the Brooklyn Heights Promenade — can you think of anything more romantic? 

The New Jersey waterfront was surprisingly nice and not anywhere near as hectic or as sweaty as standing in a pen with hundreds of other people in the middle of the 90-degree streets of Manhattan. We even had time to grab some appetizers at what appeared to be the only restaurant in Weehawken — P.F. Chang's (lettuce wraps!) — and walk along the water, stopping every five seconds to take yet another photo of the amazing view.

Although brutally hot and humid during the day, the weather was perfect as the sun went down, and the breeze off the water made it downright pleasant. 

When the fireworks finally started, we realized that there was a streetlamp blocking our view, but we were able to walk a few feet and had an amazing view of the show. I've always loved everything about fireworks, and I think they are the perfect way to celebrate America — they're ridiculous, extravagant and in-your-face, and the Macy's show was no exception. 

They did throw in the occasional shaped firework, which I'm never really a fan of — I feel like 90% of the time you're straining to guess what they're supposed to look like. I did catch a glimpse of a smiley face, but it's the huge, glittering, classic firework that I love. There was one particular group of enormous, gold, sparkling fireworks that pictures, of course, can never do justice, but that didn't stop me from trying to capture every moment. 

Trent and I have already discussed trying to view the fireworks from a different place each year, and maybe one day we'll be rich enough to take one of those fancy cruises and watch from the river with a drink or two in our hands. But until then, paying $9 for the Weehawken ferry isn't a bad alternative.

Chinese Lunar New Year Firecracker Festival 2013

Sunday marked the beginning of the Chinese Lunar New Year and this year is the year of the snake (I'm an ox, or so the Chinese restaurant place mats tell me). To celebrate, my friend Trent and I headed to Chinatown (duh) for the Firecracker Festival. We heard there would be lion dances and half a million firecrackers, which sounded pretty awesome. To be honest, it wasn't exactly awesome, but I'm still glad we went — you never know until you try, right?

We got there at 10:30am, and the festival was scheduled to begin at 11. The whole thing takes place in a sunken basketball court in Sara D. Roosevelt Park, so we were in the second row of people but couldn't really see much. Turns out, the firecrackers didn't go off until around 12:30, with the lion dances coming shortly before. The other two hours were filled with a seemingly endless stream of speeches — half in Chinese, which is understandable, but I can't tell you what they were saying — most of which consisted of councilmen/women wishing everyone a happy new year while simultaneously campaigning for themselves.

When our vote wasn't being solicited, we were treated to another seemingly endless stream of what I can only assume are semi-famous pop singers, but cultural barriers aside, no one in the crowd seemed to have any clue who these people were or why they were singing. It was all so bizarre and incredibly cold — after about 30 minutes of standing on what had basically become an ice pack, both Trent and I began to fear for the safety of our toes.

The lion dances were cool, or rather I think they were. When they began the crowd of photographers and "officials" was so densely packed around them that no one outside of the basketball court could really see anything.

At least we could see the firecrackers, and they were just as loud as you would think half a million firecrackers would be. I'm glad we stuck around long enough to finally see them, and I also loved all of the confetti — I think they should scratch the firecrackers and just do half a million confetti poppers next year. There's a parade this weekend, which is probably the better celebration of the two, with more ideal viewing conditions I would imagine. Despite loving New York I get a tad claustrophobic in loud, pushy crowds, so I'll probably skip the parade this year. We do have plans to return to Chinatown on a non-holiday weekend to try out the Nom Wah Tea Room and the Chinatown Ice Cream Factory— I've actually never eaten Chinese food in the city, which seems kind of ridiculous because I love it.

So, do I recommend the Firecracker Festival? Not really, but I'm still glad we went and now we can check it off of our to-do-lists. We were also treated to the somewhat puzzling appearance of Asian Ronald McDonald, who was the only mascot in attendance, danced along with the songs and spoke alongside councilmen and Chinatown officials to wish everyone a very Happy New Year — so that pretty much made everything worth it.

Christmas Vacation

I already revealed that Christmas Vacation was my all-time favorite holiday movie, but I feel like my love for it goes far beyond it's nostalgic Christmas charm. I'm kind of obsessed with everything concerning it, whether it's the merchandise, soundtrack or these amazing commercials from Old Navy.

1. DVD |  2. Dickey  |  3. Holy Shit Where's the Tylenol|  4. Moose Mug  |  5. Santa Hat  |  6. Ornaments  |  7. T-Shirt

Last night my friend Emily came over and we had our annual viewing while we sipped nog from my beloved moose mugs. Nothing puts me in the Christmas spirit like hearing the opening song ("Christmas Vacation...") or holding a cup by it's antler.

Some of my favorite quotes:

• Is your house on fire, Clark?  
• Can I refill your eggnog for you? Get you something to eat? Drive you out to the middle of nowhere and leave you for dead? 
• Don't throw me down, Clark.
• Oh, Eddie... If I woke up tomorrow with my head sewn to the carpet, I wouldn't be more surprised than I am now.  
• I don't *know* Margo!
• Every time Catherine revved up the microwave, I'd piss my pants and forget who I was for about half an hour or so.  

Please tell me you've seen Christmas Vacation. What are your favorite parts?

How I Spend the Christmas Season

Stores start putting out Christmas merchandise in October and I'm like:

Then people start lining up weeks ahead of time for Black Friday sales at places like Best Buy and I'm like:

I hear about stampeding moms at Wal Mart and I'm the one person that's like:

My Uncle and I go Black Friday shopping in a heavily-Jewish area of town, which is usually deserted and we're like:

But then I see someone headed for the same thing I want and I'm like:

For the next week I get approximately two hundred emails containing the words "cyber Monday" and I'm like:

But then two people buy something from Blue Carrot Shop and I'm like:

Then I realize I have extra money in my PayPal account and I'm like:

I fill up online shopping carts only to be mere pennies away from receiving free shipping and I'm like:

Then I add and subtract items until I've spent exactly enough to get free shipping and I'm like:

Then I realize I've hit my spending limit for each person and I'm like:

Then I buy even more things because:

Then I decide that I'll just make cookies for EVERYONE, which ends up looking more like this:

Then I wrap my gifts and put them under the tree, and my cats are like:

Then Christmas comes around and while I'm hoping it looks like this:

Thanks to climate change it's been looking more like this:

Then I pass out my gifts and I feel like:

Until someone gets me something way less awesome then the gift I gave them, and I'm like:

 And spending time with our families always starts out like this:

 And ends up like:

And after eating ALL OF THE THINGS, I pledge to eat better for the New Year, which starts out like:

But pretty soon I'm right back to being like:

NEED MORE GIF RECAPS?

See how I spent election night

Christmastime is Here!

I don't go super crazy with holiday decorations, but I've been slowly accumulating things over the years and I'm really happy with my growing collection. I've tried to stick to a wintery, red and white type of feel — I'm pretty traditional in my Christmas tastes. I got the stockings from Target last year (hung by our bookshelf with care), including the two tiny felt ones for our cats.

I got these ric-rac trimmed towels last year at TJ Maxx, and this year I picked up the snowflake placemats (Target again). I've had my eye on these votive holders, but I haven't been able to quite justify the purchase yet (gimme some time, I'll think of something).

PS - Can you spy the cat portrait by Rachael? It makes me smile daily.

I was always a huge stickler for real trees growing up, but my man already had this faux tree when I moved in, and who am I to argue with something pretty, free, and incredibly easy to set up (it's even pre-lit)?

I've been collecting ornaments for pretty much my entire life, and I have a good mix of vintage, Hallmark and bulbs. It's always hard to pick favorites, but my Christmas Vacation ones make me smile every time I pass the tree. I wish I had the other two in the set (the RV and light-up house), and not only because they are bringing insane prices on eBay right now.

Lastly, one of my very favorite things in my house is this faux bois ceramic vase I got a few years ago from Anthropologie. I switch out the foliage depending on the season — lilacs for summer, Japanese lanterns for fall and holly for winter. Like the tree, I used to abhor fake flowers, but I've been able to find some really nice looking ones lately — a far cry from the dew-drops-on-roses that I will hate always and forever.

I'm really trying to enjoy Christmas this year because we were away for Halloween and Thanksgiving. I'm nearly done with my shopping, and soon it will be time for the annual viewing of Christmas Vacation, complete with rum and eggnog sipped from these mugs, but of course.

Easter Recap

I hosted my very first Easter dinner this year, and I think (hope) it successful. I have a thing for vintage, flocked bunnies, so any event that allows me to put them on display is immediately a favorite.

I made individual baskets for everyone (even though the youngest person there was... me) and filled them with Cadbury mini eggs, Reese's cups, Kit Kats and topped it all of with a Peep. The egg-shaped gumballs only confused two out of two grandparents.

I've never really "decorated" a holiday table before, but I let my pink Pyrex bowls and various bunnies do most of the work. I may have also used some (unused, obviously, I'm not that cheap) orange Solo cups leftover from our Halloween party — who says pink, orange and red don't go together?

This was also my first time cooking (or, heating up) a ham — apparently a whole, spiral-sliced ham is too much ham for six people? Ask me how I know this. Or rather, ask me how many times I was told this.

How was your Easter? Are you still eating handfuls of black jelly beans every morning, or is that just me?

Party Time, Excellent.

Despite some culinary missteps (my lady fingers turned out a tad on the pudgy side, my shards of "glass" were more frosted than see-thru —shhhhh don't tell Martha) our Halloween party was amazing — and every single person came in costume, even my man's dad who had on such a convincing "Justin's Dad" costume that he was voted runner-up in the costume contest (the top prize went to a very authentic Macho Man Randy Savage).

We also had a Wayne and Garth, the Christmas Story Leg Lamp, Green Man, two Michael Jacksons (one came with her own "little" boy in a onesie), a sexy Robinhood, Robin (minus Batman), one third of Run DMC, Elmo, an old man in a cowboy hat (aka my grandpa), a pirate, an owl, a real child with a blue face, three vampires and two very classy, fantastically fancy foxes.

In addition to great costumes, there was some pretty delicious (and spoooooky!) food...

Two jack-o-lantern scarecrows, some creepy porch decorations and a few hundred sparkle lights to greet our guests...

Carved critters...

Bottles of "poison" and a dead flower arrangement...

I also may have spent a lot more more than I had intended on decorations/every Halloween-themed thing I could find, but now I'm just extra prepared for next year, right?

This is Halloween! This is Halloween!

As I've mentioned, we're having our Halloween party this weekend and I've been trying to prep what I can ahead of time so I'm not running around like a madwoman come Saturday afternoon. Here's a sneak peek at what I've accomplished thus far:

Inspired by these Martha ones (and not wanting to pay for them), I made my own soda labels (and treat bags).

Coffin utensil holder — I bought an unfinished wooden one (like this one) from Pat Catan's, painted it, distressed it and wrote my own epitaph with a silver Sharpie marker (love those).

We carved our pumpkins, which will end up being heads for spooky scarecrow-like yard decorations — can you guess who the soft, gray, adorable inspiration was for mine? Two years ago we tried the Martha Method of filling a mason jar with white Christmas lights instead of a candle and it worked great (especially if you hoard extra-long extension cords, which we do).

I've also prepared a list of creepy foods that I intend to make, including but not limited to: these heavenly sounding pumpkin cupcakes, deviled eggs like this, salsa dip that looks like puke but tastes like amazing (equal parts salsa and cream cheese), the always-a-hit finger cookies and these shards of glass cupcakes from — you guessed it — Ms. Stewart herself*.

And, lest I get too worn out from all of this strenuous party prep, I've been diligent about getting outside, enjoying the last of the warm fall weather (it may snow this weekend -yay!) and taking every picture I can of the beautiful leaves before they're gone.

What are you being for Halloween? Any last minute suggestions for creepy food/decorations?

*Although it may seem like it is, I promise this post is not sponsored by Martha Stewart, I just love her and everything she does. But I wouldn't be opposed to being sponsored by her, eh Martha? What do you say?

Have your people call my people**.

**I don't have people.

Broomstick Treat Bags

Once again, I turned to the High Holy Priestess of Halloween, Ms. Martha Stewart, for the treat bags I decided to make for our Halloween party this year. I've seen these broomstick bags in her magazine for a few years, and decided to finally give them a try.

They are pretty simple, but take a lot longer to put together than I had anticipated. By the time Practical Magic was over (1 hr. 44 min.) I had only finished 15 "brooms". I had also run out of treats, so I moved on to The Craft (I was really feeling the 90s witch-vibe) and a nap.

First, gather sticks from your (or your neighbor's) yard, and have your nice, handy, man cut them for you. I found that a more substantial, thicker stick looked better, but use what you can find.

Bonus: This totally counts as yardwork, or at least that's what I told myself.

Push the bottom of one bag out, while keeping the sides folded in. Cut the bag into strips, stopping short of the bottom. This part frustrated me at first, because you're cutting through multiple layers of brown paper and it gets pretty shifty and tries to make your life hard.

I found that keeping a hold on the cut parts while you cut the rest, and constantly re-aligning your pieces is the way to go. Also, if it's not perfect, it doesn't really matter in the end.

Cut some fringe in the top of another bag, and set it inside of the shredded one. Fill with treats, and insert your stick handle.

Gather the shredded strips around the inside bag, and tie tightly with string. I wrapped it around a few times to look like a broom handle.

Place in a box, and keep away from cats until your party.

I'm pretty happy with how they turned out; I just hope they last until the 29th — for some reason Mozart has felt compelled to chew on every one of the stick handles she can reach.

Side note: the bags ended up a lot larger than I had thought they would be, but it makes them more realistic/impressive looking. Be prepared to use a lot of candy in each one (and make sure you have some extra for yourself, you've worked hard).

Halloween Invite 2011

I had lofty aspirations for this year's invite to our Halloween party — I'm a graphic designer, I should be able to knock it out of the park, right? Well, I never really got around to designing the perfect invite (one that I had planned on screen printing too, you know, because I have endless time), so I turned to the Holy Lady of the Holidays: Martha Stewart.

I downloaded this owl template, and customized the middle portion with some spooky type of my own creation (at least I designed part of it, huh?). I printed them on sparkly card stock (half silver, half copper) — leftover paper samples given to us who-knows-how-long-ago by a rep — and voila!

An adorable and memorable invite that was super easy to put together — although after cutting out more than twenty I must admit that I began to get the dreaded scissor-finger-claw.

Just download the pdf template, add your date/time/place, print, cut, secure the wings with teeny brads (I used matte black ones I just happened to have, and punched the holes first with a push-pin), mail to your friends and family and wait for the compliments to start rolling in.

And, if none of them happen to read Martha Stewart, you may just be able to pass it off as your own creation.

I promise I won't tell.

Also, if you happen to be in the neighborhood on October 29th, and you're not a complete weirdo, stop by! Consider this your formal invitation (don't make me cut out another damn owl).