Fam is Fab

Some how my mom and sisters ruby slippers got confused when they clicked their heels last Thursday. Instead of going to their respective homes, they ended up at my home! What a lovely surprise that was. OK, so it wasn't a surprise, but it was lovely. It is always nice to see family, and I love showing people I care about around my neighborhood.

Mom, Kate and Aubs arrived Thursday night... on time. Blake never seems to have that luck. I cleaned the apartment all up and lit candles to make the place smell great. We were all pretty tired and kept saying, "OK, we need to go to bed," but we accidentally stayed up talking until midnight. Girl talk!

Friday morning we all got up early. Lisa and I headed to work, and the girls headed downtown. Luckily, I was able to take a half day and we spent the afternoon running around Little Italy. We had lunch there and were all thoroughly stuffed. However, we literally could not leave Little Italy without desserts so we just had to suck it up and eat 'em. They were fantastic. I think all the Gunn girls have a sweet spot for Italian desserts based on our lineage, but anyone in their right mind would have loved these. A chocolate dipped creme puff filled with chantilly cream, a chocolate dipped cannoli, a regular cannoli and we'll call it a fruit pie due to my poor memory. Delish. After that we had to head up to Herald Square to pick up my ring that was unexpectedly done early. Now that was a nice surprise! No more rubber bands.

While we were up there, we went in Macy's. That was an absolute mad house. I know people come into the city to do their holiday shopping, but I think I'd leave. It is mid-November and you could hardly move. We did ride the original wooden elevators, though. I thought that was neat. They were much smoother than I'd imagined. We hurried out of Herald Square because of all the people.

It had been a long day so we came home and ordered in a pizza.

Saturday morning we slept in a bit. Our Grandma Gunn and Auntie Judy came up from Boston, which was a surprise, so we met with them in Time Square. We ran around uptown all day. We hit all the major sites including Rockefeller Center and the Bethesda fountain in Central Park. Even though we had already been to Time Square once that day, we had to go back to see it at night. They all concurred that it is much cooler at night.

One thing that was annoying this weekend was that there is subway construction on our train tracks so we had to take a shuttle. Why do buses seems like such a bigger hassle? After hustling it back on the bus, (side note: I literally had to pry the bus doors open with my hands. Another NYC first.) we grabbed burgers, fries and shakes at Flipster's. My family has a thing with 50s diners. If there's a 50s diner, we'll unintentionally find it. Flipster's isn't necessarily a diner, but it has the food and it's good so we had to humor ourselves. Then we had another low key night. I love those.

Today we just ran around Park Slope. We saw Prospect Park, Brooklyn Library, the Grand Army Plaza with the arch and did some shopping. I got some new winter boots-- waterproof and impermeable. I think they'll be great for the inevitable NYC snow storm.

Now my family has gone and left me. Alright, so technically I went and left my family but still. I'm sad to see them go, but I'll be home in three weeks so it's not bad. All in all it was a great weekend, and even though NYC is far less green than Emerald City, I think they had a good time. I know that I did. I'll leave with you some photos from the weekend.