There are a lot of photos and stuff to share, so I’ve divided this adventure into several posts. Links will become available as posts are published!

WEDNESDAY 🎄 THURSDAY 🎄 FRIDAY 🎄 SATURDAY 🎄 SUNDAY-MONDAY

I’m so sorry, it’s been so long since the first post about this topic! 😔 Life has been, well, life. You can click on the link mentioned above to get a refresher on the first day of my trip.

Anyhow, the next morning I woke up feeling a bit more at ease knowing Romeo had been found. Looking out, this is the view that greeted my eyes. Truly awe-inspiring.

I was particularly excited for this day! It would be my day of indulging my inner child the most. But before that, our first stop would be the Top Of The Rock. We passed the Rockefeller Christmas tree on the way there:

I also looked inside the American Girl store, which was still closed. I didn’t get to go there, but don’t feel as though I particularly missed out. There were other things I wanted to see so much more.

Top Of The Rock

I was really impressed by the whole Top Of The Rock experience, including the fake snow during the introductory video and the historic aspects of the place. Here are the photos I took while we were up there:

My mom took some really wonderful video of the view:

It was around this point that Christopher would tell me about the bite from Sweeney, of which he shared an obviously infected-looking photo. I’m well aware of the danger with cat bites; they are serious: people lose fingers and sometimes whole appendages over a seemingly small cat bite that was left to heal without help, usually out of ignorance. Most people have no idea how serious it can be. It doesn’t always go wrong, but when it does, it is REAL BAD. And Christopher’s finger was already infected, in just a few hours!

You can imagine my panic. So on the one hand, I am worried about the cats (diarrhea and lack of appetite was ongoing, still) but my major concern was Christopher, and the fear that he would not take this seriously. Thankfully he heeded my advice and went right to the urgent care, where they flushed the bite and gave him horse-pill sized antibiotics (by our return he was almost all better, but it did get a little worse before it improved, much to my anxiety at the time).

I managed not to let this ruin my day for his sake, I know he didn’t want that, but it created some friction in the day because I could not help but worry.

FAO Schwarz

After the Top Of The Rock experience, it was time to make one of the biggest dreams of my whole life come true: visit the FAO Schwarz toy store! I had a really big hope that Fern would buy me a Steiff teddy there. I’ve never been able to justify the cost for a real Steiff bear. I’ve spent a lot on teddies in my life, but no single teddy bear I own costs was a real Steiff bear costs. It is too much. But this was a very, VERY special occassion, a once-in-a-lifetime deal.

The line for FAO was very long. Maybe an hour’s wait? It was about a full block long. But finally we made it to the entrance, from which we had another lovely view of the Rockefeller tree:

FAO Schwarz is almost like a toy fair. Brands had their own booths, with their own attendants. Whatever you might imagine such a store to be from seeing it in movies, it was all that and more.

I immediately ran to the Schleich booth:

They even had a machine you could use to make your own animal with a pattern of your choice! I considered it, as it was affordable, but ultimately had so much trouble picking, that I moved on. I did almost grab this guy, who was wearing a FAO soldier outfit! He was so unique.

Across from the Schleich booth, there was a Brio booth:

That immediately brought Christopher to my mind. I wished so much that he had been with us.

Of course, there was a Calico Critters section!

They even had this beautiful diorama:

That is basically what I want to do with my own Calico village, and I have a ton of stuff set aside for this purpose, but I didn’t have time this Christmas (2025). Hopefully this year, 2026, I can make that project happen.

It was finally time to go see the Steiff section. I went right to the area where the fanciest bears were displayed behind glass and under lock and key. I knew which bears I specifically wanted to see in person to make my pick. One of them was not there, while two others were: the Little Drummer bear (not pictured) and the BOSS x Steiff Collection bear, pictured below all the way to the left:

I knew right away that he was my bear. What I didn’t know is that he was the only bear in the store! And had been for a while. Just sitting there, waiting for me. He is made of mohair, 5-way jointed, and is part of a limited edition of 1,000 pieces. He is made in Germany, and the most magical part, which I didn’t realize until I moved the box in the hotel room, is that he has a growler! I’ve always wanted to have a teddy with one.

This bear wouldn’t be the preferred choice of several of my friends, as he has a very stiff and hard body, more than any other bear I own. He’s not actually stuffed with sawdust, but rather shynthetic material; however, having held sawdust-stuffed teddies, I know this is the feeling being emulated here. He is exactly what I wanted him to be.

I couldn’t leave the store without taking a photo of the piano from BIG!

I got a few more things at FAO. One was a stuffed capibara, and there were also two other plushies, called “Big Tails”: a squirrel and a skunk. I’ll share photos of those later. The capi would become very special to me on this trip. Firstly, I didn’t realize until we got back to the room that their name was “Asuka”, a name I’ve never heard outside of the anime Evangelion. That was kinda cool!

But I knew they would need a different name, as I did not feel it suited them at all. And they (well, he) would get one, a little later on this day!

SUMMIT One Vanderbilt &
Grand Central Terminal

After dropping things off at the hotel, our next adventure would be visiting SUMMIT One Vanderbilt. I had my first New York hot dog on the way there!

We had some time to kill before the time shown on our ticket, so we explored Grand Central Terminal. “Grand” is certainly a befitting word for this place!

About SUMMIT One: I’ll be honest, I hated this experience. We stood in line for 45 minutes only to be super blinded by the sun. I only saw about half the experience because I had to leave (by myself) or else I’d miss my Santaland spot, which I cared a lot about. But what I saw of SUMMIT felt overblown and even annoying at times. One part while waiting in line for the elevators made me very claustrophobic and afraid of what might happen if something startled that massive crowd in such a small space. I had a 15 minute line just to be able to get on the elevator to leave the damn place, too! 😡

With all of that said, my mom LOVED it, and it was really mostly for her. So, it felt worth it for that.

Macy’s Santaland

I had a 3:00pm-3:25pm time slot to get in line to see Santa. The real Santa! So I ran off on my own, so bundled up I could barely run, but run I did, through the hectic Christmasy streets of New York City. It was just about a mile, and I ran the whole way, except when I stopped to take these two cool photos:

That ancient looking facade was just there in the middle of more modern looking buildings, I don’t know what it was, but it seemed so out of place and beautiful.

When Macy’s came into view, it hit me that getting to the actual store, to my floor, and to Santaland would still take a lot of time! My heart was in my throat. But still, I kept taking pictures whenever something like a street light forced me to wait.

When the crowds forced me to walk slowly, I took pictures too!

I had a lot of excitement, as well as trepidation. Excited to meet Santa, anxious that I’d be too shy and chicken out, worried I’d miss my slot, and so on. But I couldn’t stop running (or walking as fast as crowds would allow!)

Finally I was able to get in line. I made it just in time for my slot. Fern and my mom were not there, and I was sure they would not make it, because they are not supposed to let people join the line if all the party is not all present. As I ran, I didn’t know if this meant no one could join unless everyone was there, or that once I got in line, no one else in the reservation could join me.

While I waited, there was plenty to see. For example, a large set of dioramas showing scenes from the original “Miracle on 42nd Street” film. Here are some photos. Unfortunately it is very hard to take good pictures of these due to the light and crowds.

This was technically still outside of Santaland. When I reached the entrance, there was a beautiful, enormous Christmas train engine, and a conductor. The conductor said I could wait there for my family.

And a few minutes later, my mom and Fern did join me. Based on the info I had, Fern was under the impression that without them there, I might not be allowed to use our reservation. So he hired a very festive, Santa-powered rickshaw (also called a pedicab) to get there on time, which they did! Here’s a couple of photos my mom took during the ride:

And some video too:

I would later learn this thing was monstrously expensive, but it meant a lot to have them with me during the Santaland experience, and the ride was one of my mom’s favorite things during the trip.

Once we met up, we finally entered Santaland for real life!

The decorations inside had a handmade charm somehow. It just worked so well. Obviously, you see fancy giant animatronics and all, but there was a lot of decor that seemed handmade in the way you would have expected Buddy (from Elf) to have done. It was perfect in every way.

Speaking of the elves, they were wonderful! They all talked to the guests and made me feel a little bolder about speaking to Santa. The line moved so fast, and there was so much to see, that I hardly had time to feel nervous anyway. Here I am with one of the friendly elves, and as you can see, I’d brought my new capi friend along:

I believe her name was Jingle Bells. You will also notice I changed my Home Alone hat for a more suitable, good-girl headband. I didn’t think Santa would appreciate the whole “Merry Christmas, you filthy animal” on my beanie. I did get lots of comments about it while I was wearing it earlier though, my favorite from an usher at SUMMIT One Vanderbilt who approached and said with a wink, while pointing at my head “So, how many people actually get it?”

Here are photos of some of the animatronics and decorations we saw as we moved through the line:

This was, uh, something:

No, REALLY:

There was also a huge Christmas tree with several train tracks going around it, and a beautiful city underneath, which for me brought another pang of thinking about poor Christopher suffering at home:

I took a little video of this as well:

We passed one area where we could see two elves hard at work, choosing just the right ribbons for presents:

More photos we took throughout the walk, one with Fern and one with my mom:

Then all of a sudden you turned, and it was almost your turn to meet Santa. It comes as a bit of a surprise! He’s in a cozy little room that is rather private. You can see who he is talking to, and the person in front of you, and that’s it.

Now if you know me, you know I am really shy when it comes to stuff like this. I just feel too silly and self-conscious. I don’t know what got into me to make it so I didn’t feel stupid, or too shy, or embarrassed, but I didn’t. Santa was just really special and disarming. He’s exactly how you would expect Santa to look if you knew what the real Santa should look like. He talks just like how you’d expect Santa to sound. Nothing felt forced or fake or rehearsed. He was the real deal.

He talks to every guest for a little while. So I told him how I almost missed my spot, and that I’d ran all the way from SUMMIT One Vanderbilt just to meet him. I don’t know how to describe the expression on his face, but he seemed to tear up, and that made me tear up, too. I expected this to be a silly experience, and instead it turned out to be one of the most magical moments of my entire trip.

He asked about my capi, and what his name was. I told him he didn’t have one yet, so he said, “Why not Santa?” and laughed his jolly laugh, which wasn’t actually “ho, ho, ho”. It was much more natural but very jolly. Anyhow, of course my capibara’s name is now Santa. It will never be anything else!

Speaking of, Santa actually tried attacking Santa. I’d begged my mom and Fern to take photos but NOT record me… my mom did anyway. I guess I’m glad she did:

These is my favorite of the official photos I ended up with (actually, a lot of them didn’t turn out so good, which is why I’m not posting them all, but I do love this one):

After the wonderful visit with Santa, we walked around Macy’s for a while. There was a large LEGO display featuring the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade:

As well as this Bluey one!

And this Barbie house diorama:

We went to the Union Square Holiday Market afterwards, and had dinner from a few stalls there. I didn’t enjoy this as much, I think, because I was very tired and cold. But I did see a real NYC rat taking food over and over back to his nest while we were there. So many checkboxes checked!

Evening Horse Carriage Ride

After that, we rode the subway back to the hotel and bundled up some more for our first carriage ride, which was a very sweet and generous gift from a kind friend. This was a night ride –we already had a morning carriage ride for the next day booked, so it was wonderful to see the city and part of the park at night from the carriage, and then again during the day.

At some point during our walk to the carriage pickup area, Fern took this photo of me, and it is a very goofy photo, but also one of my favorites of the whole trip, because it encompasses the happiness and quiet wonder I felt throughout so much of the experience, so well…

Here are some photos taken during the ride, some by my mom and some by our driver. Our horse’s name was Tigger.

We went back to the hotel where I vaguely remember falling asleep while Home Alone 2 played in the background. The hotel was playing that and Elf in repeat! Haha.

Anyway these posts are sooo content heavy, I may have made mistakes… I’ll double check it later today in a few hours. Hope you enjoyed, I’ll try to not have the next one take so long!