Thompkins Family Takes New York

As an unexpected and extremely generous Christmas gift, my dad sent me, my sisters, and my mom to New York City! We were there from December 26th to January 4th -- right smack in the middle of the holiday season -- which has always been a dream of mine. As an extra bonus, my favoritest cousins in the world ended up taking a trip to NYC that overlapped ours! Prepare for some Thompkins/McAfee family insanity. 
 When we first arrived we were absolutely blindsided by the cold. It didn't help us at all that it was 5 AM. Unable to check into our hotel until noon, we spent the morning acclimating to the freezing weather and exploring the south end of Central Park. Please excuse our sleepy/grungy faces.
 
 a quick slideshow of Desiree dancing in the park:

Dancing in the Park

The ice rink. We never got around to ice skating because it was so darn cold but we meant to do it everyday :(

After exploring the park for a few hours, we checked into our hotel and took a much-needed nap. Upon waking up we realized that our hotel sucked bigtimeeeee so we checked out and immediately made reservations at a much nicer hotel a few blocks away. And that was the end of NYC day 1!
Stay tuned for the rest...
:)