Weekending it

Happy 2016 everyone!!!  It's a brisk 30 degrees here.  The subways are packed and everyone has returned to the office making it loud and giving it a decidedly un-holiday vibe.  Well, back to real life.

Dan and I totally soaked-up the long weekend and checked a ton of things off of our winter bucket list.

On New Years eve we both got off of work early and packed-up the Christmas decor, tidied the apartment, and did all of our first of the month chores.  I got our traditional goofy glasses at the dollar store and we headed to a friend's house for a New Years celebration.

We played some old-school games we had never heard of before...Rack-o and Pente and then learned how to make those giant three dimensional snowflakes.  At midnight we went outside and blew horns and pulled party poppers.

We were back home and headed to bed not 10 minutes later.

On New Years Day we slept-in and then met friends for diner brunch which was sociable and fun!  Maybe we can make that a tradition?  That afternoon Dan and I went to see the new Star Wars movie.  Dan really enjoyed it and I thought it was a fine movie but I'll admit I just don't "get" the hype. But overall we were entertained.

After the movie we walked through Prospect Park at dusk.  It was so pretty!  The destination was the ice skating rink which neither of us had been to before.

We waited in an excruciatingly slow line for 40 minutes to get our tickets.  Now, our only other city skating experience has been at Bryant Park where there is literally only one way to enter the rink.  You have to sign a waiver (even if you have your own skates) and each person gets a wrist band so there is no way to skate without one.  Well at the Prospect Park rink we waited in line because we assumed that was the only way to get in and because we knew there was a general admission fee even if you bring your own skates.   After we purchased tickets and walked inside we realized there were about four different ways of by-passing the line, getting inside and onto the rink, and no one checking nor any way to check that you paid to skate.   This annoyed us since we waited so long and paid but I guess we did the right thing and followed the rules.  So we laced-up and skated off.

There are actually two rinks so there was plenty of room which was nice and spread out the crowd.  However, the "skate guards" were worthless and monitored nothing including teenagers cutting people off, people skating in the wrong direction, and little kids intentionally wiping out to slide on the ice and cut people off.  This highlighted the fact that the facility didn't require you to sign a liability form.  Even though I am a fairly confident skater I was feeling really anxious because of all the chaos with other skaters.

We powered through and mostly enjoyed the hour that we skated but I am still bitter about how long we waited and how terribly mismanaged the facility was.  Maybe it was because it was a holiday?

Anyways, we wandered out of the park and found a cute Mexican restaurant for dinner where we sat by the fireplace and enjoyed some super cheap and super yummy food.

On Saturday we slept-in again and stayed in our jim-jams until well after noon.  We did exclusively one thing the entire day.  Puzzle.

All day long we puzzled away until we finished.  We had episodes of Friends playing continuously and must have gone through at least 25 episodes.  Around 5 pm we finished the puzzle and did the laundry but otherwise it was a full day lost to a puzzle. 

You know how when you go to an amusement park all day and that night in bed you still feel like you're on a roller coaster or teacups?  Well, that happened to me on Saturday night.  I saw puzzle pieces when I closed my eyes and the song "Smelly Cat" was stuck in my head.

On Sunday we had the the day off from church responsibilities!  Dan managed to find gracious people to cover all of our tasks so that we could have a holiday.  It is rare and a real treat.  We slept-in and then went to the pottery shop to paint!

We were fortunate to be the only ones in the store for the majority of our painting.  It was so peaceful and quiet.   Can't wait to pick-up the final products next week!

Then we shared a pizza a Peppino's and did our shopping chores for the week.

It was a very long and very relaxing holiday weekend.  We spent lots of great quality time together and already have some great memories stored in this new year.

Stop by tomorrow for the first Show and Tell Tuesday of 2016!