My CFA exam is finally over (thank goodness!) so I have the time to update my blog again and do fun Christmas things in NYC… We’ll start back at Thanksgiving which I was lucky enough to be able to spend with my friend Dara’s family in New Jersey.

We started off the day at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade where we were able to stand in a reserved area with unlimited hot chocolate thanks to her Dad’s office building being right along the route. If you saw the crowds, you would realise how lucky we were – people get up at ridiculous times to queue!

Thousands of people line the streets and look up in awe as hundreds of floats, marching bands and enormous balloons go by – the sheer scale of it is amazing! Here are a few of my favourites – notice how many people are responsible for holding each balloon! It also helps to put the size of the balloons into perspective…

Yes, those are ice-skaters on a moving float! 

Some were just scary… apparently this is a new thing called “Elf on the Shelf” where you buy your child an elf and then it watches them and reports back to Santa if they’ve been good and the parent is supposed to move it around each day….

Also, I never knew marching bands were such a big thing in America- there must have been at least 20, each with around 200 people in and most of them had come from places other than New York.

When we had had our fill of giant balloons and floats (or when we could no longer feel our fingers and toes, whichever came sooner!), we headed back for the drive to New Jersey. Dara is from a cute town which still had a fair bit of snow left over.

We settled down in their lounge while members of the family slowly arrived – there were a few other “strays” like me who didn’t have family in New York and everyone was very welcoming to us. There were 22 of us for dinner so it was very impressive they managed to cater for us all and the meal did not disappoint! Here’s a snap of the spread which we helped ourselves too, with the American classic of sweet potatoes baked with marshmallows taking centre stage -still not 100% convinced on this one but everything else was amazing- including sprouts which were baked in maple syrup- I would actually eat them at Christmas if we cooked them like that!

We all went round the table and said what we were thankful for and there was a bit of a singalong around the piano afterwards! A lovely day!

I spotted these two lurking outside the office the next day- the ones that got away…

Now my exam is over, I fully intend to make the most of New York until I come home for Christmas, which started with some much needed retail therapy and Christmas shopping today after Church and brunch!  New York is definitely looking very festive!

I started in Bloomingdales (where else?!), before heading to Tiffany’s which is all dressed up for Christmas:

If only this would pull up outside my door….

It was onto Bendel’s next and a quick detour via the Rockefeller centre tree on my way home! Pretty spectacular! I’m very excited to go and sing carols there next weekend!

One happy shopper full of Godiva chocolate-covered strawberries!