New York City-Day 1

Good Morning, Friends! {I always want to type this but truly don’t know when you’re reading this. However, according to my analytics most of you are reading in the morning so I’m going with it in 2026.}. Happy Monday! I hope you guys had a great weekend!

I’m here with the first little recap of our New Year’s Trip. Keep in mind we booked this trip super last minute. I think it was the first weekend in December so about three weeks before and due to Christmas I was REALLY booking things/setting up our itinerary two weeks out. There were a few things that were sold out when I checked but my people didn’t notice any difference. I’m saying all that to say that I know it’s ideal to plan trips further in advance but sometimes you can have just as magical of a time with less planning.

With that said, early Monday, December 29th, we flew out to New York City…

And I immediately was singing the King of Queens theme song. Anyone else?!

We immediately headed to the hotel to check in, drop our bags, and freshen up. {If you squint you can see Tab in the background trying to take a quick five minute nap.}. I bought these fur boots just for our trip and loved them with my longer jeans.

We stayed at the Marriott Marquis Hotel right in the heart of Times Square. We upgraded one room for the full viewing of the ball dropping. Our other room was a partial view and it happened to be the views of what you see behind them….it was the NYE stage.

We walked right into the middle of Times Square to see the chaos, errrr, fun. 😉

I was nervous about booking something on our arrival day because with flights lately we’ve gotten really unlucky and have been delayed quite a bit. So our plan was just to walk around, see the sights and enjoy dinner later that evening. When we arrived it had been raining a bit earlier in the day so the temps were a bit warmer…like in the 50’s.

We did JUST that!

St. Patrick’s Cathedral was extra stunning at Christmas.

We waited at dusk for a few minutes to see the Saks Light Show. It was really cute and drew a CROWD!

This tree was what we were dying to see. We spotted it as we waited for the show.

WORTH the wait!

And made our way over to get cuter! They thought this was hilarious because everyone else in the family thought this pic of them looked good. Then they’d spot me. ha!

We walked over to the Lotte New York Palace for may reasons…

1. It was close.
2. We heard it was decorated beautifully for Christmas.
3. This was the Van Der Woodsen Residence in Gossip Girl. 😉 {I bolded the main reason.}

Ebby Lee has been watching Gossip Girl so it was a must on our NYC to-do’s.

The inside of the hotel was stunning!

As was the outside!

We found the iconic Christmas ornaments….

and took pictures of those too! FYI-I bought this coat just for NYC. Not often do I need a coat this thick in Texas! I wanted something long that was belted and I LOVED this! Plus it’s on SALE!

Our dinner reservation that evening was at Trattoria Trecolori. I randomly found it on Open Table, it was close to our hotel, and the food was full of food my people like. The pictures online don’t do it justice. It was a cute little Italian restaurant that was absolutely delicious. At the end of the trip, this spot got votes for favorite meal! At this point in the day, my family was “pictured out” so I didn’t take any pics. Super good spot though.

I was envisioning everything to be crazy crowded so I made reservations for many meals just because we’re a big family and I didn’t want us to have to wait in long lines to eat. We can be a hangry group. But with that said, I tried to find places we’d all find something we really liked without just heading to a nice steakhouse. I know there are great spots in NYC but our family of six at a steakhouse can easily spend $500+. While we all love a nice steak, we can also enjoy other cuisine {and save some of that money for fun excursions}. Remember I also booked two weeks out so I had to get creative. We had great food at every meal though so the point is the “most popular” places aren’t the only delicious spots in NYC. 😉

After dinner we made our walk back to our hotel because my people were exhausted. It was a really great first day. Day two I had lots of plans and an early wake up for us. 🙂

Thanks for reading today!

XO