This is probably the longest monthly update I’ve given in 2021. We had two new jobs, three Michelin dinners, booster shots, Christmas decorating, and a trip to California. All before the ball dropped in Times Square.

RECAP OF THE MONTH

Right as the calendar flipped from November to December I finally started to feel better from the stomach flu. Fortunately right as I started to feel better, both Jenn and I had some pretty exciting, life-changing news to close out the month and begin December. Both Jenn and I accepted new roles at new firms. In what seems to only happen to us, we accepted the offers for the new jobs within 30 minutes of each other. The moment of jubilation when I walked into the office after hearing Jenn hang up the phone and hearing that she got an offer and following it up with my own was a moment that I will never ever forget. It was almost too much good news at once. I’ll never forget not even being able to process everything that was happening. As exciting as the news was, it’s a scary proposition leaving two jobs and companies that we really liked but these were two incredible opportunities that we couldn’t pass up.

To celebrate Thanksgiving late and our new jobs we went to Wallse a place we went to in 2019 and had reservations for on Thanksgiving (that we sadly missed). Wallse continues to be as good as we remembered it. An understated Michelin restaurant with elegant interiors and simply delicious food left both Jenn and me so happy to be back. We started with a pretzel (my choice) and then had two different soups. Jenn had a lobster bisque and I had a chestnut soup. Both were delicious and perfect for a cold winter day. For our main course, Jenn had the Venison and I had the Weiner Schnitzel. These continued to be out of this world, great flavor, modest portions and beautifully cooked. We finished off the meal with the apple strudel. It was one of those evenings that just started to feel like “back to normal.”

The next day we had our annual Christmas decorating day. Unfortunately, we were a week late this year but it wasn’t any less special. I don’t know how Jenn does it but each and every year our place gets more beautiful and our decorations leave me speechless. We probably said more times than I can count that this was the most beautiful decorating we’ve ever done. To pair with the intense Christmas decorating we had Christmas music blasting throughout the apartment Sonos and Rose champagne flowing, especially in my glass.

One of the downsides to where we live in the Upper West Side is that there aren’t a lot of restaurants in the immediate vicinity. We usually have to walk 10-15 minutes or take a Subway/Uber to get anywhere good. Finally, after a few years a Mexican restaurant opened up directly across from us (Empellion) and we went there the night of our Christmas decorations. It was sort of surreal stepping out of our apartment and being there within a minute. The good news (and it really is good news) is that the dinner was great. We had tacos, chips and guacamole, and dessert and everything was flavorful, beautifully displayed, and delicious. We finally have a good place to eat where we don’t have to do much more than step out of our building. I have a feeling some Tuesday night Margaritas are going to be in our future.

Even though it has felt like at times that we are coming to the end of COVID, a new wave is just starting to ramp up as I write this post (Omicron). The current recommendation is for a third shot, so both Jenn and I scheduled our booster shots at CVS right before the wave hit. Because I got sick I pushed mine off a week, but we did walk Jenn to a CVS in the UWS to get her booster while I went to Citi Field a week later. I had almost no reaction to the third shot but Jenn got a fever, fatigue, and swelling in her armpit which she was not happy about. Luckily within 24 hours she was back up and going and we are now fully “boosted.”

By the time the middle of the month rolled around it was time for Jenn and I to start our new roles. Jenn started on Friday, December 10th so that she could at least get situated before she flew out to San Francisco / Sonoma for an offsite. Her first day went like a breeze. Going from one remote job to the next the “transition” to a new role was very different than anything either of us has done in the past but she handled it like a champ. To celebrate our new jobs we went out to Le Coucou which just reopened a few weeks prior. It has been and continues to be the best restaurant in New York City. When we arrived we were whisked back to a table near the open kitchen where we could watch the chefs at work.

New to the menu is the “A Very Coucou Dinner” which is a tasting menu where you don’t know what’s coming, a completely blind tasting. They didn’t even let u know how many courses it would be, food just sort of arrived. The bad news though is that I have no idea what the menu was other than to say it may have been delivered straight from heaven. Everything from the consume to start with to the small chocolates at the end, everything was as close to perfect as any food could be. Combine that with great champagne and wine and we had one of the best meals of our lives. When we left Le Coucou it felt like we truly had an experience that we’ll never forget.

Two days later after going to see A Sherlock Carol, Jenn left for Newark to fly to Sonoma (with a stop in Phoenix) for a three-day offsite and a visit to the San Francisco office. Later on that Sunday, I walked Frasier from our apartment to the Upper East Side to spend a few nights at NY Tails while I started my new job. After his drop-off, I spent a few hours at the Met before walking home, getting dinner, talking to Jenn, and getting ready for my first day.

The next day I walked from our apartment to my orientation at my new role and went to the holiday party that evening in Columbus Circle, it was a long but rewarding first day. The rest of my first week went great, and Jenn came home safely on Thursday bringing the entire family together. On Friday night we had tickets to a Christmas Jazz concert in Columbus Circle and got to enjoy two hours of great music in a beautiful room that we had never been to. The rest of the weekend we tried our best to just rest and get ready for our trip to California. We knew how much traveling we’d be doing so we stayed in, watched Christmas movies, and tried to relax the best we could.

On Monday, December 20th Frasier got picked up to spend 10 days at Far Fetch Acres a few hours outside of the city. After his pickup, Jenn and I walked to the east side and had drinks at the Bemelman’s Bar. Jenn had their Jackie-O drink which was their play on the French 75 which was great and I had their smoky martini which was out of this world, it even came with a little extra on the side which left me quite loose when we left the bar an hour later. From there we walked nearly 40 blocks to Rockefeller Center to see the tree and then jumped on the subway to take us downtown. We had dinner at a nice small Italian restaurant called Felice. Jenn had some wine and we both got pasta, I had the carbonara and Jenn had a ragu. It was the perfect quick dinner before walking across the street to the iPic to go see our second movie of the year, Spider-Man: No Way Home at 6 PM. We had popcorn and enjoyed the movie before grabbing an Uber home and getting ready for our trip to California.

On Tuesday, December 21st we left our apartment to Newark a little after lunch. Unlike our drive to Newark in June, our trip to the airport was under 30 minutes and after dropping off our bags in the first-class line we jumped in the TSA PreCheck line which was only ten minutes in comparison to the over hour line for regular security. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a lounge so we hung out near the gate before boarding our flight to LAX. Our flight ended up being delayed almost an hour sitting on the runway for undisclosed reasons. The flight itself was easy though, I watched Hawkeye and Jenn watched the new Sex and the City series. We arrived in Los Angeles on a beautiful evening, grabbed our checked bags, and walked across the street to the Hyatt Regency (the same hotel we’ve stayed at for each of our holiday visits.) Once we checked in and dropped off our bags in our room we went back downstairs to continue with tradition and got drinks (beer/wine) and grilled cheese before turning in for the night a little after 11 PM pacific time.

The next morning I walked to the nearby Starbucks (another tradition), grabbed our drinks, and by 9 AM was in an Uber to go to Sixt to pick up our rental car. We lucked out on this trip and got a brand new (11 miles on it) BMW 2-series sedan that made for an incredible car for our trip. I picked up Jenn at our hotel and we were off to Orange County. We were able to check-in early at the Renaissance Newport Beach and after unpacking all our clothes and gifts we left to grab lunch at In & Out at UCI. Even though we’ve only been back in NYC for a little over six months, pulling up to UCI made it feel like we had been gone forever and had never left at the same time. After lunch, we went to Target to get Christmas wrapping supplies but they were completely sold out so on our way to visit Jenn’s Dad & Joan we went to another Target in Aliso Viejo. On the way though I couldn’t not stop at Blk Dot and get my favorite Vietnamese Iced Coffee. We spent our first day in California in Oceanside and that evening having dinner in Del Mar at the very good Market Restaurant + Bar with their three-course prix fixe.

On Thursday we made an early exit from our hotel and met Jake at Champagnes in Newport for breakfast. From there we made our way to Irvine to see his beautiful new apartment before heading to Riverside. Jenn and Amy had spa treatments at the Mission Inn and I spent the day with Ryan, Jake, and the two kiddos, Gracelyn & Camden. One of the big highlights of the trip was being able to spend so much time with them. Meeting Camden for the first time was incredible, he’s obviously our first nephew, and seeing this calm, sweet, sleepy baby was as good of a gift as we could have asked for. Gracelyn almost two is growing up so fast and her bubbly personality is starting to really shine. Throughout our time in California, I loved every second of playing with her. She was a little apprehensive when I first arrived, but an hour in she fully opened up and I didn’t stop playing with her until we left their house Sunday evening. Her laugh is infectious and I was just blown away with how much fun we were having. That evening my parents came to visit and we had pizza.

And just like that, it was Christmas Eve and we were back in San Diego. We had lunch with Ally & Tim at an Italian restaurant in Vista and then went to Jenn’s Dad & Joan’s house for a nice Christmas Eve dinner. We got back to the hotel a little after 8 PM but that wasn’t going to detract us from our Christmas Eve tradition of watching the Charlie Brown Christmas Special and Christmas in Connecticut.

The next morning we got to sleep in a little more than past Christmases. We made our way to Starbucks and to Menifee to celebrate Christmas morning with my family. The family continues to expand and the process of opening gifts takes longer but that doesn’t stop us from having a great time. It was so good to see everyone together, more than the gifts, just seeing everyone happy and together was something that after the last two years I think we all truly appreciate more than ever. From Menifee, we left a little after noon and grabbed some McDonald’s, and made our way to Oceanside. After a game of Monopoly (which for the record I won) we enjoyed a nice Italian dinner and opened gifts and talked to the early evening. In hindsight, we did a ton of driving and you’d think we’d be absolutely spent, but at the moment it was just so nice to feel this sense of normal and family that made this Christmas a great day.

With our time running out we left Newport Beach relatively early on Sunday the 26th and had lunch at one of the best places to eat in Orange County, Bear Flag. Jenn and I split a burrito and chips, and I could almost cry the burrito is so good. From there we grabbed coffee at my old stomping ground Kit, and then made our way to Riverside. We got there a little after noon and spent the day watching football, talking, playing Office trivia, and playing with Gracelyn while Camden slept with no care in the world. Ryan, Amy, Jake, Jenn, and I went to dinner at Korean BBQ in the Riverside Plaza while my parents watched the kids. It’s evenings like this that make me miss living nearby so much. We’re all just really close and good friends and having dinner together while Ryan cooks KBBQ for us is a moment that I’ll cherish until we are back in April. We had such a fun evening and capped it off with churros before we called it a night.

Our last full day in California was super relaxing. We checked out of our hotel a little after 11 AM and made our way to Fashion Island. If there’s a place that I feel “at home” it’s here. We lived here for about 7 of the last 12 years and it will forever feel good when I’m there. We’ve gotten old though and comment about how things “used to be” at almost every corner and seeing the renovations at Pacific Life and Marriott fascinated us. We got donuts at the new Mochanuts which were OK, a nice snack. From there we visited Jenn’s Mom’s memorial spot before heading to Orange to have lunch with Jenn’s cousin Holly and her boyfriend Weston. We had a nice lunch at 1886 and came back to their apartment to barely lose in a game in Pandemic. You’d think two years into a real pandemic we’d know how to win, but I guess we have more to learn. And like that our time in California was coming to a close, we dropped off our car in LAX and spent our last night at the Renaissance at LAX.

The next morning we woke up at 5 AM, packed up, and dropped off our bags at Alaska Airlines. We got to use our Clear membership and TSA Pre check so a few minutes after our bags were dropped off we were through security and in the Alaska lounge. We spent two hours waiting for our flight in the lounge but it went by in a blink. We split a mimosa and some light snacks and coffee before boarding our flight back home. The flight home was uneventful, we had a nice breakfast, champagne, and bloody mary’s, and a little after four hours later landed early in Newark and were home a little before 5 PM.

We arrived home a few days before the end of the year. Jenn had the last two weeks of the year off but I was back at work. Due to Omnicron, my work asked us all to work from home so the last few days of the year we stayed in and enjoyed a very mild start to our winter. On the 29th we got to go back to the theater even though many of the shows in the city had taken short-term closures. Frasier arrived home from Far Fetch on the 30th and the family felt whole again.

If you’ve read any of my December posts before you know that Jenn takes her NYE seriously. She’s always felt that how NYE goes informs a lot of how the next year will go. I think it’s just an excuse to have a great day but either way we always try to make the best of it. Jenn took Frasier to Central Park first thing on NYE morning and he had a blast running in what she said was a pretty empty park. I wrapped up work early for the day and we enjoyed a light afternoon before getting ready for an absolutely incredible dinner at The Modern a two Michelin star restaurant in midtown inside of MoMa. Our reservation was for 6:30 and we arrived at a packed dining room with balloons and beautiful decor. By far though the most stunning thing that evening was Jenn in her 205 high heels and Tory Burch dress, she looked like something out of a movie. We got a table looking out over the entire dining room and for the next 2.5 hours, we had caviar, white and black truffle, Foie Gras (a day before it was banned), lobster, and duck. Not to mention a glass of champagne and cab for me and a French 75, Chianti and Syrah for Jenn. The memory that will stick with me the most though was about halfway through Jenn was telling the waiter how great everything was and he offered a “secret course” which was a white truffle pasta in a creamy chestnut sauce that was simply divine. Leave it to Jenn to find a way to spend more on an NYE dinner, but it was worth every penny.

We arrived home a little after 10 PM after walking through the outskirts of Times Square seeing the ball before it dropped. We watched Midnight in Paris and watched the ball drop on CNN and fireworks in Central Park before finally going to bed a little before 1 AM. What a way to close out the year!

TV WE WATCHED

We watched a lot of TV in December and most of it was excellent. I’ll never forget the season finale of Succession (season 3) and how I felt like I didn’t breathe for most of the hour. The ending is something that I’m not soon to forget. The same too can be said for The Great season 2 which had an absolutely stellar sophomore season. And sort of crazy but Hawkeye on Disney + I think was my favorite Marvel TV show of the year, just a really fun story and made for great airplane viewing.

BOOKS I READ (OR LISTENED TO)

I did it with a day to spare, but I made my goal of 45 books in 2021. I wish I ended with a better book, but my last book of the year was Cytonic the third book in the Skyward series and it was by far the worst of the series which I’ve loved up to this point. I also read The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles who wrote one of my favorite books of all time A Gentleman in Moscow and although this wasn’t as good it was still one of the best books I’ve read this year.

MOVIES WE WATCHED

We watched an absolute ton of movies this month. Outside of the massive amount of Christmas movies (we watched 11 of the 12 we had planned to) we also saw two Marvel movies, Spider-Man No Way Home being one of the best movies we’ve seen all year.

Our 12 Movies of Christmas 2021:

Planes Trains and Automobiles (11/25)
Miracle on 34th Street (11/26)
Love Actually (12/3)
You’ve Got Mail (12/4)
Home Sweet Home Alone (12/5)
It’s A Wonderful Life (12/11)
The Grinch (12/13)
8-Bit Christmas (12/18)
Jingle All the Way (12/19)
Charlie Brown Christmas (12/23)
Christmas in Connecticut (12/23)
Christmas Vacation (Didn’t watch)

THEATER WE SAW

It was a somewhat slow theater month, but we did get to see two shows. A Sherlock Carol which was part Sherlock Holmes part Christmas Carol sounded incredible but it was one of the more disappointing shows of the year. Flying Over Sunset was incredible though. We had tickets originally for April 2020 which was canceled and then by pure coincidence saw one of the star actresses from the show do a live performance while we were in San Diego (Carmen Cusack.) The play was about famous people in the 1950’s taking LSD but was more interested in talking about life, stress, and the meaning of it all. It was a bit long but Jenn and I were captivated only a few rows from the stage.

GAMES I'VE BEEN PLAYING

After seeing Spider-Man: No Way Home I had this desire to go back and replay Spider-Man recently remastered for PS5 and it is just as good as I remember it. When I wasn’t swinging through NYC I spent a little time trying to wrap up Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla and playing some of my go-to sports games.