12 Dates of Christmas: On the fifth date of Christmas...

... I spent the day enjoying Christmas in Manhattan with my friend Jill, who was visiting from Minnesota.

We started our morning bright and early with a delicious breakfast at Norma's in Le Parker Meridien Hotel. Their cheesy french toast is honestly one of the most amazing things I have ever eaten- I have been thinking about it ever since our visit! After breakfast we shopped around at the Union Square Holiday Market, visited Tiffany's, and saw all of the beautiful holiday windows on Fifth Avenue. We also stopped at the Plaza Food Hall for some treats mid-morning. The pink and white cookies (or red and green during our visit) from William Greenberg Desserts are ones of my favorite treats in the city! It was so wonderful having Jill in New York City for the day. We have been friends since fifth grade and it was awesome to catch up and get lots of baby advice from her! If only she lived on the East Coast... come back and visit again soon, Jill! 

Fifth Annual Girls' Day

Every Thanksgiving weekend Emily and I have a special girls' day together in Manhattan. The tradition was born in 2012 and we have looked forward to it every year since. The events change slightly from year to year, but we always make sure to see all of the beautiful Christmas windows on Fifth Avenue at some point during the day.

This year I introduced Emily to the holiday market in Bryant Park. She searched for Harry Potter gifts to add to her Christmas list and we picked up a few items for Brian as well. We stopped for lunch in Rockefeller Center and then made our way up Fifth Avenue admiring all of the holiday windows and lights. We had an awesome day taking in all of the Christmas magic!

Wishing you a very happy Thanksgiving.

Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours. We hope you have a wonderful holiday filled with love, laughter, and delicious food!

If you are in need of a few laughs this holiday, here are some of my favorite Thanksgiving videos: 
A Thanksgiving Miracle
Whine About It: Ways to Win at Thanksgiving Dinner
Weekend Update: Garth and Kat Sing Thanksgiving Songs

Love.

Happy Valentine's Day! I hope your day is filled with the people and things that you love most. Brian and I will be ordering a pizza tonight and cooking a bigger meal tomorrow evening to celebrate. This is our eighth Valentine's together and I couldn't be more grateful to be with someone who makes me laugh every single day.

Life according to Instagram: Home for the Holidays Edition

Want to follow along? My username is Daina_A.

Scenes from the weekend.

We always have Emily over the Thanksgiving holiday, so we have a lot of traditions worked into the long weekend. On Saturday we had our second annual girls' day in Manhattan, which included admiring the holiday decor on Fifth Avenue, a trip to the chocolate store for truffles, and a snack at the Plaza Food Hall. We had a lovely time! We started our girls' day tradition last year and are so excited to continue it for years to come. We also took Emily to her first Guster concert on Saturday at the Beacon Theater, one of my favorite venues in the city. They were performing the Keep It Together album in its entirety in honor of its ten-year anniversary. It is my favorite of their albums, so I was especially excited! After a fun-filled holiday weekend, I ended up spending the entire day on Sunday in my pajamas organizing my old photo files, unpacking winter sweaters, and watching way too many episodes of Pretty Little Liars. How was your weekend?