Valeria Out Loud

Hey WordPressers!

How are’ya? Hope well.

It donned on me earlier that after tomorrow, I will only be in the office six days for the rest of the year! WoOohOoo!

I love December. (Sigh). Not just for my superawesomebirthday, which is tomorrow btw *ahem*, but I love all of the holiday fanfare this whole month brings. The bonus being, that I wont hear from anyone at work until next year. Ahhh December, you beautiful thing. 😂. I’m just kidding, even though work has been hectic, it actually has been rewarding this year. I have gotten two raises annnnd my boss just told me that in Feb 2023, my internal title will be Officer. So I am on my way, kids! To where? IDK! 😉

So, anyways. I can’t wait to catch you up on my weekend. We hit up NYC for Christmas, which we haven’t been since Covid19 arrived two years ago. Now, for folks who don’t know, Boston is roughly 3.5-4 hours from Manhattan. We are basically sister cities, even if New Yorkers don’t think so. haha Anyways, I love NYC, always have and always will. The first city my parents immigrated from Sicily to was NYC, the borough of the Bronx, where my father’s three older sisters and brother lived. Now, remember my dad is one of eleven kids, there were six more still at home in Sicily! And they stayed there. Since it’s the starting point of my family, I have an immense connection with NYC. Though my parents left NY pretty quickly, we often visited everyone in NYC. But as soon as I could go on my own, it became a yearly destination for my fun. Then at 19, I met my husband and soon after I had taken him to NYC for his first time! Which turned into us going a couple of times a year, until we had our first daughter. Then our second. But as soon as we could travel with them there, we quickly evolved my birthday into traveling at Christmastime to NYC. It may be one of my favorite traditions that we have created.

Let’s catch up!

NYC at Christmas 🎄

We left for NY on Friday, about midafternoon-the kids had a half day of school. Not the most ideal time to drive, because it took us about five hours to get into the city, but we didn’t mind. We checked into our hotel, dropped our bags and headed out for dinner at our fav ramen restaurant, Hide Chan ramen. The food there is always so good. Fresh, natural, and perfect in colder weather. It was about 45F that night.

After dinner, we took a walk over to Fifth Avenue to check out the Christmas lights and windows of Saks, and see the big tree at Rockefeller Center before heading below for shopping. We had such a great time. That area never disappoints!

On the way back to our hotel, we grabbed some cream puffs and hot drinks at Bearded Papa. The best cream puffs anywhere. The first time we had visited one was in Boston, right before Covid locked us down in 2020; we ate in Chinatown then stumbled upon this place. The girls went nutty when they saw it.

The next day we woke up …late- we didn’t mean to, but we woke up at 9!! Woo! We pulled ourselves together and headed out. First stop, The Metropolitan Museum of Art! This was the second time our daughters had visited this museum but it felt like their first. We had a great time roaming the halls, taking our time through Egypt and the Americas wing. It was lovely.

After The Met, we took an Uber to SoHo. We had plans to grab pizza on the fly then shop around Broadway. First stop was Prince St Pizzeria- with the line circling the block. It was a quick wait? Like twenty minutes but the line was HUGE! We grabbed a few slices then ate standing up in their front street space. After a good lunch, we walked down Broadway to a few stores for the Girls- some markets, Brandy Melville, Blick, MoMA store, and then we hit up Tyler the Creator’s store Golf on Howard Street.

From Broadway, we took the subway to Herald Square to check out Macy’s holiday windows and the interior of the store. It’s one of our favorite stops during the holiday in NYC. They just do the whole theming right and are thoughtful in their design. There is a lot of detail.

After we had all the Macy’s fun that we could handle, we took a walk over to Urban Outfitters to browse and warm up. Then we took a quick walk to Valerie’s for my birthday dinner! It was so much fun. The place was beautiful, all perfectly adorned for Christmas. The drinks menu was unique and the dinner menu was pretty much everything I like.

After dinner we took a walk up to Times Square to grab some M&Ms and walk around. And I’d like to say that we didn’t walk back to Bearded Papa’s for another round of cream puffs, but well, we did. 😂. They are thAt good!

The next day we woke up a bit early, grabbed some coffee and hit the road for back for home. A snow storm was brewing in the northeast and we didn’t want to get stuck driving in the thick of snow. We have done that before and it was no bueno. We got home, grabbed my baby boy Jack, and had a pretty great night to end the weekend.

Monday is Pottery Day!

The next day was pottery day, which makes me so happy. This class was a free form class, meaning folks were glazing and finishing up projects. I had a thrown carved vase to glaze, which I chose a new color called Robin’s Egg. It’s supposed to be a pigmented aqua.

Then I had a spoon to glaze too. This project I wanted to paint it in a colorful rustic style. So I looked up some ideas and came up with something. I cannot wait to see them next week.

My favorite part of class is the creating but lately it’s the socializing. Surprise surprise! 😂

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Boy, I talked a lot…and now I hafta go! I am officially off work but need to drive my youngest to confirmation classes. My days get busier not longer..but tomorrow is MY day! ❤️

Have a wonderful night, guys. We will catch up again next week. Thank you for stopping by and taking the time catching up with me.

til next post! xo