NYC: 'Twas the Night Before Christmas...

After all these years of Cannes-style Christmas, involving a lot of chilling and a tiny bit of shopping, it's taking a little while to adjust to Manhattan's usual warp speed. I woke up early this morning and decided to walk down to Macy's—which had been open all night—via the Rockefeller Center for some brief photo-bombing of the Today Show and for a very good macchiato at Blue Bottle, which is a useful purveyor of fine coffee to know in the macchiato mediocrity of Midtown.

I didn't buy anything at Macy's but I did buy a couple of pairs of skinny jeans at American Eagle for $30 a pop, which meant a frog march back to the hotel to drop off my purchases before joining the family for our 10.30 date with the Top of the Rock. It was a good day for skyline views and we only conned a couple of people into taking a photo of us (with seven cameras).

We then zipped down to SoHo for lunch at Fanelli's, another Quisite family favourite. Instead of a burger I had a grilled chicken sandwich with pesto and roasted red peppers, which was delicious and helped to energise me for a final bout of gift shopping in SoHo. It wasn't too busy downtown—no more so than a normal Saturday, anyway—but I was still grateful for a caffeine break at Everyman Espresso's newish branch on West Broadway.

Then it was time to walk back to the hotel to finish wrapping presents. I stopped to take a few photos of the Empire State Building with its festive red and green lights, and made the mistake of thinking it would be fun to see the Times Square crowds and chaos. It wasn't; it was crazy. But I have now visited all of the shops of my list—and more—so I can focus on sight-seeing and culcha for a day or two. Until the shops call me again...