Thank goodness for the cute baby

And for amazing friends.  And for a lack of traffic disasters.  And for Sgt. Peppermint.  But I'm getting ahead of myself.

For last weekend's holiday trip to New York City to see Carrie, Jason, and Baby Alan, I had grand plans to spend Saturday roaming the city with a dear friend, taking in the holiday cheer and checking out the tree at Rockefeller Center and gazing at shop windows and spending an inordinate amount of time falling with blades on my feet ice skating and sipping hot chocolate and just generally enjoying it all.  In anticipation of the slightly less than stellar forecast for Saturday's weather, I even packed my fabulous snow boots that can take a beating and still keep me toasty warm and unaware of the elements. 

Ummm....it's hard to appreciate general holiday cheer when it's raining horizontally and you're caught in countless wind tunnels.  Especially if you're trying to take pictures of anything at all.  Your hands are needed for much more important things like holding umbrellas and keeping flying scarves out of your face.  So, needless to say, our city adventures on Saturday were pretty limited, but we did at least catch a peek of the beautiful tree at Rockefeller Center shortly before seeking refuge in Anthropologie (please note all of the crazy umbrellas):

Even if the weather did foil our general city-fun plans, we still had a fantastic weekend enjoying the warmth of a cozy apartment while watching snow fall.  Very holiday indeed.  Some of my favorite things about the weekend:

• The scent of a real Christmas tree.  Ooh, and in NYC there aren't exactly tree lots, but crazy tree sidewalk stands.  I'm just fascinated by the lack of space.

• Curling up on the couch and watching The Cutting Edge.  Yes, this was a highlight.  Carrie and I both have very fond memories of watching this movie excessively...for some reason.  And have you listened to the soundtrack??  It's enough to make anyone smile.
• Adventures in sugar cookies and decadent hot chocolate.  Thank you, Sgt. Peppermint and Pillsbury.  There's something to be said for crafting your own cookies out of dough scraps.  Really let the creativity flow.
• A tasty Sunday brunch at 181 Cabrini - table covered with coffee and mimosas and French toast and bagels and eggs benedict.  Yum.  Also in the company of one very well-behaved baby who is just too cute for words when bundled up to face the cold:

• Stopping in at B&H before catching my bus back to D.C.  I felt like a kid in a candy store with practically everything I could every possible want for my camera staring me in the face.  I limited myself to one new lens, a Nikon 55-200mm telephoto zoom (should come in handy for Bryan Family Christmas Cruise!), and proceeded to hustle myself out of the store before I spent an entire paycheck.
• Just spending quality time with good friends and catching up on the day to day.  So grateful to have these wonderful people a short ride away.  And you know what?  The trip back to D.C. on Sunday night actually took the 4 hours and 15 minutes that Bolt Bus always projects yet never manages to actually deliver on due to ridiculous traffic.  Amazing!

If you want to check out the pictures from the weekend (warning: very heavy on baby pictures, seeing as how (1) he's such a ham for the camera, (2) Auntie Erin couldn't resist, and (3) we had a lot of indoor time this weekend), head on over to the Picasa album.  You might not see any more of what I'm calling his "superhero" pose like the one below, but there's an awful lot of cute Mr. Alan in there.