Thank You, New York City

Hello Loves! Am writing to you from a very wobbly Amtrak train car. My Sweet Sister in Law, Sarah and I are on our way back to the District to be met at the station by husbands and children. But, before I leave this fun place of NYC I must tell you about the last 24 hours.
One of the best parts of my job is that our headquarters are on Wall Street so every few weeks, as you have witnessed from my blog posts, I travel to the Shiny Apple for meetings. Fortunately, for me, my family and friends all live near here and I get to parlay work into play much of the time. And I get to shop. Since Sarah's company's headquarters are located in NYC as well, we were able to make a very strong case for the two of us traveling here for meetings and not heading right back after the holiday. Ahem. And they were very important meetings at that.
Last night Sarah and I met two of her fabulous friends, Phillipa and Karen at 'Cesca for dinner. See us below. I fell in love with both of them immediately and plan to play with them again when I visit the City. How fabulous to have a new friend who is not only British with the most divine accent but with the name Phillipa. I collect names. Having been born in the 1970s I have a collection of friends named Jennifer. I love that name and have the most wonderful Jennifers in my life. So now I get to say things like, "Oh, I do have dinner plans that night but why don't you join me with Phillipa, Tzeitel, Jiffy and the Jennifers ." (All actual favorite friend names that I do love to toss around).

I am also extremely fortunate to have a host of conference calls for my job. Today I had one at 10 am until noon. Don't you dare tell a soul that I shoved that earpiece in my ear put my phone on mute and walked up and down Park and Madison and strolled into; Bergdorf Goodman, Bloomingdales, Henri Bendel, Banana Republic (Mountain Man's Christmas present half purchased) and Borders. It was lovely. Beyond lovely actually. It was exactly what I needed after five intense days of relatives. The weather in NYC was mild today and at every corner I heard the Salvation Army bell jingling away. Of course, as a promise to my Grandmas I never walk by a Salvation Army volunteer at Christmas. They both remember the SA being very good to their brothers during WWII and made me promise to always stop contribute a dollar and speak to the kind volunteers. Today I gave away 3 dollars.
At noon I attended a meeting with the president of an extremely large company who gives a very generous donation to my non profit each year. She is one of those women who no matter when, where, why or how she is always the perfect lady. I hold her to be one of my mentors and role models. She met me at BLT Steak and together we dined on Lobster Cobb Salad and mint tea. Divine. She of course, was positive and complimentary and made me feel like I could do anything. Note to self and all girls- these are the kind of women we need to align ourselves with and emulate. Steer clear of naysayers. They do more harm to us than good.

The first picture is of Rupa and Neelam two of the women who run programs for our non profit throughout the world. I was at HQ on Wall Street by 2 after my lunch and stayed for a few meetings. Whenever I head to NYC I always grab coffee with Rupa and Neelam at the Wall Street Cafe and talk shop, but mostly the Gossip and Dish about Shop. In two hours we'd summed up our solutions to all the world's problems including our new titles Vice Presidents of Everything. We girls could run the world don't you think?
At six I met Sarah at Penn Station, sushi to go in hand and now am an hour and a half from home. Deep breath ladies more work tomorrow. What awaits us is a house that has been inhabited by two men (Mountain Man and his brother) and two little boys (our nephews 6 and 4) without any female oversight for 24 hours. Last I heard there was no food in the house and Mountain Man thought it would be a good idea to buy a Christmas Tree and teach the boys how to decorate it.

Pray for me.

Sending you deep breaths, relaxing moments and the Christmas Spirit to find you on this first day of December.

Kisses, xoxoxo