And just like that, we are coming to the end of 2024. What a year it has been. But that’s for the next post. Today, let’s look back on an incredibly busy and beautiful December. On the first day of the month, after spending the day with Jenn, Elle, and Frasier and watching Miracle on 34th Street, I boarded a Delta flight to London. This was my last work trip of the year, and I was ready for it. I took the 7:40 PM flight out of JFK and, after waiting an hour for airport traffic, rushed to the new Delta One lounge for a quick dinner before boarding my flight.

I arrived in London on Monday, December 2nd, and after dropping my bags off at the Westin London City, I went straight to work. I had dinner with a friend from work that evening at the one-Michelin-starred Amaya Grill and Bar. The week in London was spent in many meetings and the evenings at the end-of-year team events. It was never my favorite activity, but we got through it.

Officially, Jenn returned to work on December 4th but had some rather essential meetings on the 3rd, so she went to her office at Lincoln Center while our nanny Tamar took care of Elle. Jenn had a tough start to her maternity leave. Not only was she recovering from the c-section, but she also had multiple infections that were quite debilitating, all while she wanted to take care of Elle and spend time with her. Thankfully, she was able to take a longer maternity leave, and watching her over the last 2-3 months grow into an incredible mother has been one of the greatest joys not only of my year but of my life. However, she’s also excited to return to work and seeing that part of her come back to life has also been a beautiful thing. Frasier also loves going to the office with her every day.

While Jenn was starting back up at work, I took the Eurostar to Paris for a day of work there, concluding with their holiday dinner. I arrived late to Paris on Wednesday night and was able to grab dinner near my hotel (Hyatt Paris Madeline) at Le Boissy d’Anglas. It was one of the only restaurants near the hotel open, but it was beautiful inside, and I could enjoy a large glass of Bourdeaux, their eggs and mayonnaise for a starter, and duck confit. The food was good, not great, but for me, sitting with other Parisians at 10 PM on a Wednesday, who were drinking multiple bottles of wine, talking, laughing, and in no rush to go anywhere. The lack of everyone on their phones was a breath of fresh air. I left dinner at 11 PM and wasn’t tired, so I walked the streets of Paris, deciding as I was walking to go to the Eiffel Tower to watch the lights twinkle for the last time that night.

I flew home Friday on the 1:30 Air France Flight from CDG to JFK. Before I went to the airport, I turned my alarm on early and went for a walk. I didn’t have a destination; I wanted to soak up a beautiful winter morning in Paris. I walked for over 5 miles going past the Notre Dame (which was re-opening the next day) and enjoyed the city. I remember texting Jenn when I returned to the hotel, saying it was one of the most fulfilling walks of my life. A feeling of peace and clarity washed over me during that walk that I needed. One day I told her we don’t have to live in Paris permanently but I want to be here for a few months. I’ve traveled here over 20 times, and like New York City, it’s a place that I continue to love.

After a brutally long drive home through holiday NYC traffic, I arrived just in time to say goodnight to Elle before she went to sleep, and we had the weekend to spend as a family before Jenn flew to Monterey on Monday, December 9th. While Jenn had her first leadership meeting at the Carmel Valley Ranch, I had a lot of my year-end meetings, holiday parties, and dinner this week, which meant we had Tamar here even more than a typical week. It was an exhausting week for Jenn and me, but we survived while Elle and Frasier thrived. Jenn missed Elle so much that she ended up moving up her flight for a red eye that stopped at LAX before heading to Newark. She arrived home Friday morning right before I was heading to work.

While Jenn was in California, she kept telling me that we needed to take Elle to Rockefeller Center to see the Christmas tree and go to the FAO Schwarz toy store. I kept telling her how busy it was when I had walked by it to go to work, but she didn’t believe me, so on Sunday, December 15th, we walked in that direction. It was a frigid and gray December day, but we went there. Like the zoo a few months ago, Elle fell asleep on the way. As predicted, there was a massive line outside of FAO Schwarz, so we skipped that and instead were able to enjoy the beautiful tree. Elle even woke up for the last few minutes there.

Earlier in the year, I had decided to take the last few weeks of the year off, utilizing my paternity leave. On December 16th, I put away my laptop, turned off my work notifications, and was on full-time Dad duty. I will fully admit that I was nervous. I’ve watched Jenn and Tamar care for Elle during the day, and they are excellent at it. But after a few hours, I was fully immersed, and by the end of the week, I remember telling Jenn at dinner that it was one of the best weeks of my life. Outside of a few doctor appointments for Elle, we went for long walks around the UWS. One of my favorite memories of the week was sitting at Riverside Park looking out on the Hudson River with Elle in my Yankees hat. She was giggling and smiling the entire time, and my heart melted. I am so grateful for this time with her.

On December 21st, we had our first snowfall in New York. We haven’t had much snow since we moved back to New York from COVID. But when we woke up to a white cityscape, we got everyone bundled up and headed to Central Park. This was Elle’s first foray with snow, and she was less than impressed. After taking photos, she chose to sleep while her brother took every opportunity to romp through the fresh powder. There’s nothing better than fresh snow in NYC, especially in Central Park. Snow in the city doesn’t stay nice for long, so we spent as much time out there as possible. At the end of our time in Central Park, Frasier started to limp again (same spot as a month prior), so Jenn took him home in a taxi while Elle and I walked back.

The city was covered in snow, a perfect lead-in to Christmas. When Jenn was pregnant last year, we decided early that we wouldn’t travel back to California for the holidays. Instead, we wanted to make our own memories and traditions with our small family of four. On Christmas Eve, we woke up to another small snowstorm. It wasn’t as much snow as a few days prior, but it added some dust to the ground. After lunch, we were back outside and went for a nice family walk on Riverside Blvd. That evening, we had dinner reservations at Bad Roman in Columbus Circle. It was packed, the busiest we’ve ever seen, but we got a lovely table overlooking Columbus Circle. Jenn started with a French 75, and I had their pepperoncini martini. I had their veal Milanese, and Jenn had the branzino, and we split some fries. Elle did great the entire dinner; she spent some of it sitting with us while we ate in the high chair. It took some convincing, but Jenn was right. Being out on Christmas Eve and enjoying a nice dinner was lovely. We got home, watched Charlie Brown’s Christmas while giving Elle her last bottle, and finished the evening watching Christmas in Connecticut.

The next day was Christmas. For the first time, maybe since Elle was born, she didn’t sleep straight through the night. She got up 4-5 times from when we put her down on Christmas Eve to the morning of Christmas. We noticed on Christmas Eve that her two bottom teeth were starting to show through her gums, making her quite uncomfortable. We got her down for good at some point during the night, but we didn’t wake up on Christmas morning with as much energy as we had hoped. Fortunately, we rallied and had a beautiful Christmas morning. After we fed Elle and Frasier, we opened our stockings and a few gifts. Elle was still sleepy, so we let her nap and continued opening gifts later. We started and stopped a few times during the morning, including to have eggs, bacon, sausage, and English muffins for breakfast with our favorite champagne. We finally finished opening gits by 1 PM, and the amount of fun both Elle and Frasier had made it all worth it. Elle was far more interested in the wrapping paper, and Frasier wanted Elle’s toys more than his own. It was chaos but in the most beautiful sense of the word. At around 2 PM, I started prepping our short rib pappardelle pasta dinner, which turned out great. It was one of the best things I’ve ever cooked. When the day ended, and both Elle and Frasier were fast asleep, I remember telling Jenn that we couldn’t have asked for a better Christmas. As much as I loved the coffee maker Jenn bought me, and Jenn loved her Tory Burch shoes, it paled compared to Elle and Frasier getting excited about their gifts.

On December 28th, we had our last date of 2024. We went out to see The Outsiders on Broadway. We had planned to do lunch in the city, but the weather was frigid and rainy. Instead, we defaulted to going to Friedman’s around the corner for breakfast. Tamar came to watch Elle and Frasier while we enjoyed the nearly 3-hour performance. The Outsiders has been on our list to see for a long time now, and even this 2 PM matinee was sold out. We both liked it, but it was far from being our favorite of the year.

Jake arrived bright and early the next day (December 29) to spend the rest of the year with us. After spending time with Elle and enjoying a bagel from Ess-a-bagel, we drove to the USTA National Tennis Center to play indoor tennis. We booked the court for an hour and a half and enjoyed a competitive set and a half before our time ran out. The courts were pristine, and we enjoyed using their electronic shot calling. We drove home in a lot of traffic before enjoying a beautiful bottle of Syrah from Wine Access and a giant NY pizza from Pops.

On December 30th, Tamar watched Elle while Frasier spent the night at Camp Canine. It was the first time since Elle was born that we enjoyed a full day in the city. We left for lunch at 11 AM to go to Coqodaq, a nearly impossible reservation to get since it opened. They are known for their fried chicken, so we partook in their “Bucket List,” which came with two variations of fried chicken and a few sharable sides. We also started with two caviar chicken nuggets and tuna tartare. Unfortunately, it didn’t live up to the hype; while the fried chicken was good, it wasn’t spectacular. From lunch, we spent the next 3-4 hours walking around Manhattan, stopping at furniture stores like Crate and Barrel and West Elm. We stumbled back upon Books of Wonder, a children’s book store where we got Elle two books, including one signed by Trevor Noah. Jenn kept shopping while we waited for our 5 PM reservation for pre-dinner drinks and bought clothes at Sezane and Poetry.

At 5 PM, we headed to The Up & Up, a cocktail bar next to our dinner destination. I had never heard of it before, but when we looked nearby, we found it was pretty popular. We had 5:15 PM reservations and were given an excellent corner table overlooking the rest of the bar. We each ordered a cocktail. Jenn had the Cosmotroplis, Jake had Zuzu’s Petals (great name), and I had Dr. Teeth & The Electric Mayhem. These were some of the best cocktails we’ve had, and it was an excellent pre-game for our dinner at Acru, which is a few blocks away. A little after 6 PM, we walked to Acru, a newly awarded 1-Michelin-star restaurant specializing in Australian cuisine. Their six-course tasting menu had a few fish and meat items and a fantastic array of desserts. Jake and I also added the wine pairings while Jenn had a glass of champagne. It was a great meal; there was only one dish we didn’t love, but otherwise, it was a casual and enjoyable evening.

That brought us to December 31st, a day that Jenn always likes to make perfect. We had planned to go to the Met Museum, but Elle decided to take a much longer nap, so instead, we went to breakfast at Utopia Diner, picked up Frasier, and went for a lovely walk around Central Park. It was such a mild December day that it made for a great day to walk around and take in the last of the holidays.

Today's main event was going to The Modern, the two-Michelin-starred restaurant inside MoMa, for the fourth year in a row. We left our apartment a little before 5 PM and planned to walk, but we stumbled upon a taxi and took that instead. I was quite stressed about going to such a fancy restaurant with Elle. Even at home, her limits are 20-30 minutes in a high chair, and these meals are easily 2+ hours. We arrived around 5:15 PM and were given a table as far away from the other guests as possible, as requested. The team there could not have been more attentive or accommodating the entire night. Jenn and Jake started with a glass of champagne, and I had a gin martini. For their menu this year, they had a seven-course meal. There wasn’t a bad course, there might not have even been a good course, everything was exceptional. My favorite dish continues to be their “eggs on eggs on eggs” dish, which is their signature dish. Jenn and Jake thought the diver scallop, squid with Iberico ham, and grilled napa cabbage was the clear standout. Elle did great, the three of us took turns standing with her, walking her to the ballons or around the restaurant. The team there would serve dishes to only those seated and would immediately come back when one of us would sit back down. I wouldn’t say it was easy, but we did it and had an unbelievable evening. We ended dinner right as the live band kicked into gear; Jenn took Elle dancing while Jake and I finished.

Jenn took a taxi home while Jake, Elle, and I walked through the throngs of people heading to Times Square for the ball drop. We closed out the night watching When Harry Met Sally and going to sleep a few hours before the calendar turned to 2025. What a great way to end the year.

TV WE WATCHED

As I mentioned last month, we’ve completely stopped watching all of the political satire, needing a break after the devastating election. Instead, we turned our attention to comedies and dramas to watch after Elle went down for the night. We typically only get in 1 episode a night but have been devouring shows like Silo, Shrinking, and Bad Sisters. They are the perfect 45-minutes to help us wind down from the day.

BOOKS I READ (OR LISTENED TO)

I set out this year to read 35 books and surpassed it by nearly 10. December was another busy month of reading, mostly non-fiction. I started with Where’d You Go Bernadette a fun, straightforward story about a Mom who disappears. The best book I read this month was A Most Beautiful Thing, about an after-school rowing program in Chicago that truly changed the lives of its students—a beautiful book.

You’d think Your Table is Ready by Michael Cecchi-Azzolina would be an easy 5* read for me. It’s about great restaurants in New York and his time in them. And although my love for Le Coucou had me wanting to book a reservation, the book didn’t hook me.

I finished the year with Nexus by Yuval Noah Harari. I love all of his books, and Nexus is no exception. I wouldn’t call his views on the future of AI optimistic, but it wasn’t all doom and gloom either. I think he took a reasonably fair approach using history to put this change in perspective. It’s not always a perfect predictor but its something.

MOVIES WE WATCHED

We watched several Christmas movies in December, even if we came up a few short of our “12 movies of Christmas” we try to do each year. The best movie I watched in December was Conclave, a great political thriller about the selection of a new pope. It felt like The West Wing but for the Catholic church. I didn’t love either Juror #2 or Deadpool x Wolverine both which were entertaining but not great.

GAMES I'VE BEEN PLAYING

After over a year of off-and-on play, I finally 100% completed Spider-Man 2. It didn’t hit the highs of the first game, but I’m glad I played it. I wanted to get into another story-driven game, so I started God of War and Cyberpunk 2077. Both are good, but I’m unsure if I will stick with them. When time was more limited I played a lot of Madden and Top Spin and even a few skirmishes on Age of Empires IV.