Christmas and new year celebrations

Happy new year! I've had a busy couple of weeks over the festive period with my family and friends so I thought I'd write a little summary for my blog.


Friday 21 December

I finished work on the Friday before Christmas and drove straight to McArthur Glen after leaving the office to meet Sarah. We had a massive meal in Frankie and Benny's and wandered around a few shops before exchanging Christmas presents. It was absolutely pouring with rain but that didn't take away from the company and the festive atmosphere.

Saturday 22 December and Sunday 23 December 

Neil and I finished off all our Christmas shopping and wrapping on the Saturday, then we had our own little Christmas Day on the Sunday where we opened our gifts from each other. We also went to the cinema to see the new Fantastic Beasts film, had an Indian takeaway and watched Elf on DVD in the evening.

Christmas Eve

Neil had to work on Christmas Eve which meant I had a quiet start to the day. I did some pre-Christmas cleaning and watched The Holiday, then Neil came back home just after lunch. We then headed to my parents' house with Jessie and a very full car boot! My brother had already arrived so Jessie had plenty of attention to keep her busy. We had a lovely relaxing evening with lots of chocolates, Pringles and Christmas TV.

Christmas Day 

Me, Neil and my brother opened our stockings together on Christmas morning, then the three of us went downstairs with my parents to open our presents under the tree. We had bacon sandwiches for brunch then settled down to watch TV and to play with our respective gifts.

My brother cooked the Christmas dinner and it was scrumptious. After dinner, we all flopped in front of the TV and watched Home Alone 2 and Rise of the Guardians. Jessie was spoilt rotten with lots of new toys and treats, and she was in her element all day. We left my parents' house at around 10pm to drive home, and she slept like a baby all the way back.



Boxing Day 

We went to Neil's parents' house on Boxing Day to spend the day with his parents and sister. We all opened our gifts before eating another lovely lunch, then we watched Paddington and Mrs Doubtfire before Neil and I headed home. I know I say this every year, but I feel very fortunate that we've got so many family members to celebrate the festive season with.

Thursday 27 December 

We had a day to ourselves on the 27th, and I'd well and truly reached the stage where I had no idea what day it was. We took Jessie to Cosmeston for a long walk, then I spent a couple of hours sorting through all my Christmas presents and putting them away (after I'd painstakingly photographed them, of course). As always, I'm hugely grateful to everyone for my thoughtful gifts and I can't wait to use them all.

We had a meat, cheese, chutney and mulled wine feast in the evening. I can confirm that it was just as delicious as it sounds.



Friday 28 December 

On Friday 28th, we drove back to my parents' house to see my sister, brother in law and nephews as they'd arrived there on Boxing Day. Jessie loved all the extra attention, and even my smallest nephew made a fuss of her even though he was nervous at first. We then called in to see Nicola and her two children on our way back to Penarth. I think Jessie and Nicola's eleven-month-old baby were equally fascinated with each other! I had some more lovely gifts to open from my sister and from Nicola, so of course I had to photograph those too.

Saturday 29 December and Sunday 30 December 

We had a quiet weekend recovering from all the festivities and spent lots of quality time with each other and with Jessie. We went in to Cardiff for a few hours and picked up some bargains, and Neil cooked a Christmas dinner just for the two of us which was pretty spectacular (and huge).

New Year's Eve 

We did some shopping in Cardiff Bay in the afternoon then went out with my in-laws for a meal in the evening. We all walked to our local Harvester restaurant which was surprisingly peaceful and quiet. Neil and I somehow managed to get a decent pre-dinner family selfie with Jessie after many failed attempts!

New Year's Day 

We had a nice lie in on New Year's Day before taking Jessie for a walk in the sunshine. We then went to see my in-laws in the afternoon and had another lovely lunch with them before watching The Croods together. I was exhausted in the evening so went to bed before midnight for the first time in ages!

We both had the rest of the week off work so we've managed to get a few bits and pieces sorted around the house as well as lots of shopping, walks with Jessie and a trip to the cinema. We're off to see Neil's auntie tomorrow to finish off our Christmas visits, then we'll be taking the decorations down on Sunday to officially mark the end of our Christmas break (sob).

Hope you've all had a great Christmas and new year!

Christmas in New York

Last week, I blogged about what we got up to in New York.

This week's post will focus specifically on all the beautiful Christmas decorations the city has to offer. After all, there are only 4 days to go until the big day!



The Rockefeller Christmas tree

How could I start with anything else? As I've said numerous times on all my social media channels, I've wanted to see this iconic Christmas tree ever since I saw Home Alone 2. We saw the tree from the back on our first night as we couldn't get anywhere near the front, and even that view made me well up. It was more spectacular than I could ever have imagined.

We visited the Rockefeller Center many times during our trip and managed to see the tree from every angle possible, during the day and the night. Thankfully it wasn't quite as busy as it was on our first night for the rest of the holiday!

The 72ft tree is the focal point of the Rockefeller decorations, and rightly so, but the whole area around the Rockefeller Center is charmingly festive. This includes the famous ice rink and the mesmerising decorations in the Channel Gardens. Every detail was absolutely perfect and I could have stared at it all forever.

Fifth Avenue 

Fifth Avenue was filled with an absolute wealth of decadent Christmas decorations. The extravaganza started with the giant UNICEF crystal snowflake just after clearing Central Park, and everything else just snowballed from that point (see what I did there?).

Lots of the high-end designer shops along Fifth Avenue had beautiful large-scale displays on their storefronts, as well as inventive window displays. It was a pretty impressive sight during the day, let alone at night when everything was all lit up and twinkly.

Saks Fifth Avenue is the avenue's centrepiece during the festive season, and a very impressive one at that. Every night, the store would put on a spectacular lights show with accompanying music which made us feel super Christmassy. As an extra bonus, Saks is situated directly opposite the Rockefeller tree which meant we could spin around and experience both at once. Slightly surreal, but completely magical. 

Macy's 

We only went to Macy's once on our previous trip to New York due to a lack of time, but we became a little obsessed with it this time. It was only a ten minute walk away from our hotel and the store's Christmas decorations, both inside and outside, were out of this world. The decorations on the ground floor were particularly impressive and I couldn't get enough of their giant suspended baubles. They all rotated very slowly which meant it sometimes took about 20 seconds to get a decent shot, but it was completely worth it.

As for the exterior, I honestly felt as if I was an extra in Miracle on 34th Street whenever I walked past. Macy's is an absolutely massive store and they certainly make sure passers-by are swept up in the infectious spirit of Christmas with their beautiful window displays and outdoor decorations. I just wish there was a Macy's in Cardiff! 

Radio City Music Hall

I loved Radio City Music Hall's Christmas display. It was pretty minimal compared to some of the decorations I've raved about already, but something about it just caught my eye whenever we walked past.

The displays in the surrounding area were also really eye catching. I'd seen a lot of them on Instagram before we arrived so I was very excited when we came across them on our first night. Radio City is pretty close to Rockefeller Center so we made sure we saw these decorations several times during our trip. Unfortunately, it was impossible to capture the sheer scale of these displays with a simple photo!

Central Park 

We made a conscious effort to spend quite a bit of time in Central Park during this holiday. On our last day, we wandered to the Wollman Rink... not to ice skate, but for me to take a nice photo. It looked so perfect against the beautiful city backdrop and the blue sky. I know this doesn't strictly fit in with the Christmas decorations theme, but it looks like an idyllic Christmas card so I figured it was fine to include it in this post.

As well as all these notable sights, there were beautiful Christmas trees and decorations in hotel lobbies, shops, apartment entrances and restaurants all over the city. If I'd have had my way, I'd have blagged my way in and taken photos of all of them.

New York City is pretty special whenever you visit, but it was truly magical during the festive season. I'm so glad I was able to experience it and to tick such a big dream off my bucket list.

In the meantime... 'Merry Christmas, ya filthy animal!'

New York in 15 photos

Last week was better than average... I spent it in New York.

I've wanted to go to New York to see the Christmas lights since the first time I saw Home Alone 2 many moons ago, and it was absolutely everything I dreamed it would be.

We went for six nights and managed to fit in a highly impressive amount. As a result, I thought it would be a good idea to share one photo from each of the sights and attractions we visited. I took 777 photos in total so this was quite a difficult challenge, to put it mildly.

A separate post will follow next week about New York's Christmas decorations, including the spectacular Rockefeller Tree, so don't be alarmed at its omission from this post!

Empire State Building

Top of the Rock

One World Observatory 

9/11 memorial and museum 

Best of NYC Circle Line Sightseeing Cruise 

Central Park 

Times Square 

Metropolitan Museum of Art 

Madame Tussauds 

Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum 

The High Line 

Grand Central Station 

St Patrick's Cathedral 

Mickey The True Original exhibition 

The Friends apartment building 

My Fitbit informs me that we walked 175,000 steps and 134km in total... this isn't surprising when I look back at all the places we visited and take into account the fact that we walked everywhere and didn't use any public transport! 

Look out for more blog posts about New York over the next few weeks, including the aforementioned Christmassy bonanza next Friday. 

Trello is my new best friend

Since starting my new job in March, I've become a little addicted to Trello. I haven't had much time to blog this week as I've been ill, so I thought I'd quickly summarise why I love Trello and what I use it for. 

Trello is basically a haven for list lovers and super organised people (a.k.a. me). You can set up boards for various categories, and within those boards you can set up numerous lists and cards. Cards can then be dragged and dropped into different lists when tasks get finished or priorities change. You can do lots of colour coding and add attachments, and it's completely free! 

Trello has a great mobile app as well as a user-friendly desktop version, and I'm now obsessively using it in my personal life as well as in work. 

So, what exactly do I use Trello for and why is it my new best friend? 

Work 

I'm a member of at least ten work-related Trello boards. As a communications team, we use Trello to plan our events and content, allocate tasks, organise workload, keep track of progress and keep on top of deadlines. We also use Trello to work with different areas of the business on wider campaigns and projects. It has a useful 'calendar' feature which allows you to look at the upcoming week or month in its entirety, and I honestly don't know how I'd be able to do some parts of my job without it! 

Blogging

I use Trello to jot down ideas for blog posts whenever they pop into my head. I move cards to my 'blog content in progress' list once I start drafting a post, then they satisfyingly get moved to the 'published' list when they go live on a Friday at 5pm. Trello has a handy 'comment' section where I keep a rough summary of what I want to cover in each blog post, and it's so much neater than keeping a big long note on my phone as I used to do pre-Trello. 

Holidays 

We used Trello to organise our holiday to Florida in May, and we're now using it to plan our trip to New York next week. Neil and I both have access to our 'NYC 2018' board which means any updates we make will sync across all our devices. It's a great way of keeping track of the restaurants we want to visit and to make sure we've actually got enough days to do all the exciting activities we've got planned. 

Christmas 

I used to keep my Christmas shopping list in the back of my paper diary. Not any more! Trello has been a really fantastic tool for noting down who I need to buy for, quickly jotting down gift ideas, keeping track of what I've bought and how much I've spent, then moving cards to that hallowed 'people I've finished buying for' list once I'm happy with what I've bought for each person. 

Is anyone else obsessed with Trello? Let me know if you can think of anything else I could use it for!