New Year's Eve in Times Square!!

Tara has an exciting career putting on dance events all over the world for Arthur Murray International, and this year she was invited to be a VIP guest at the New Year's Eve festivities at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in Times Square! Always generous and sharing, and with keys to 2 hotel rooms, Tara invited us to join her for this once-in-a-lifetime experience. (Lee loves to go to Montana where there are NO people, so we had to coax him to join us for a party with a million people in NYC, but he finally consented and took the plunge.)

Times Square was already  crazy busy and some of the streets blocked off when we arrived  on the 30th, so we finally got out of the taxi and walked the last half block to the hotel. Ben and Amy and their girls had left a day ahead of us so they spent an afternoon in the Museum of Natural History before meeting up with us. The first night we walked up Broadway to Ellen's Stardust Diner and waited in the freezing cold for a table at this famous  1950's theme restaurant with singing waitstaff. We had such a fabulous time - the food was great, they sang "Happy Birthday" to Lee, and even handed Isabelle the microphone to sing the chorus of one of her favorite songs!

The next morning we bundled up and headed out, stopping at one of Tara's favorite spots for special little yummy waffles and hot chocolate for breakfast. We walked up Fifth Avenue to FAO Schwarz, where the kid in all of us had a great time exploring.

Then it was on to Radio City Music Hall for the matinee of the "Christmas Spectacular with the Rockettes" (which I loved). On our way back to the hotel we stopped to get some party treats for the New Year's Eve party that would be going on in our hotel room while Ben went to pick up Ray's Pizza (one of his favorite New York pizza joints).

Tara had two tickets to the New Year's Eve Gala at the hotel so Amy and I took turns swapping as Tara's partner for the fabulous buffet and live entertainment, while Lee and Ben celebrated with the little girls.

Tara's Marriott host got us another wristband so that all three of us could be in the VIP group that was ushered out to a special spot on the street, underneath the "ball," at 11:45 to be part of the midnight craziness! It was WILD!!! Our toast to 2015 was with Diet Coke!

They were still sweeping up confetti the next morning when we again headed out for our last day of NYC exploring. We went back to FAO Schwarz to make our final purchases, let the girls play in Central Park, and Lee finally got to taste a street vendor hot dog. We wrapped up the evening with dinner at Junior's. We had an early flight from LaGuardia the next morning, with a brief layover in North Carolina.

New York City was so cold, but we got to wear all of our boots, hats, scarves, gloves, coats, etc. that we never get to use in Houston. Thanks to Tara for an absolutely fabulous New Year's celebration!!!