Met his parents

SUNDAY

Arrive at 7pm at Mike's. We exchange gifts. We filled each other's stockings and bought each other gifts. I got him a brand name watch, which was funny since he bought me the same watch, but the cheaper brand of it. I found a great price for his on amazon. I also got dinnerware for him that he has been eyeing. He bought me a sweater that I wore on Friday that was brown and orange and perfect for NJ as he termed. He also got me a purple BN sweater, which I had been wanting. We got lots of candy for each other in our stockings. I don't think he'd planned to spend that much, but went out and bought stuff after he found I was serious about the gifts and a stocking. We wait around to leave until the town Santa comes through, but they were too far away and weren't going to get to us. We head out the opposite directions and I drive us to the hotel. While driving Mike wants to hear all about my family's holiday traditions, and then of course makes fun of me and tells me how weird that was. Every subsequent person we met throughout the week heard just how weird my family is. We get to the hotel, check in, then get Perrier water at the convenience store down the street, then back to the hotel to sleep. We go to bed about 11.



Monday
Get a text bright and early from Linda at 5am. We take the hotel shuttle to the airport in OC. We are in economy on our flight to NY. We arrive in NJ, get a rental car, go to Mike's parent's to surprise them - he told them we'd arrive Tuesday. When we arrived it was just like, "oh, you're here, you're early, that's nice," which was so different than the reaction I'd have had in my family, but it was cool to see the contrasts in our families. We get in to NJ about 3pm. We go to the hotel after for drinks and do some shopping in 2 outlets around his house.



Tuesday
We get up at 10:30, we slept in. We go to his mom and dad's house where we take her mom and her friend to their nail appointment. We go to Hallmark and Starbucks in the meantime. Then we go to the Jersey shore to Seafood Shanty for lunch. We had seafood. Then we drive around the area and suddenly end up at the Jersey SHore house. Of course i had to get out and take photos/get pictures of me in front so that I can show my kids at work. Afterward, we go to the mall, drop his mom and friend off, then we are off to babysit a friend of his twins', afterward we stop at Princeton Uni, and then to a few stores before going back to the hotel for drinks. Bed about 1.



WEDNESDAY
We get up about 10, then go to a Jersey snadwich place for a Jersey breakfast, which was pork, eggs, and cheese on a hard roll. It was pretty good. We go to his mom's afterwards and hang out with his dad who was home for a few hours from work. He wants to go pick up his tile for their kitchen, so we go there, then when his mom gets back we go to Sams, WalMart, and the outlet mall. I fell more in love with him as we went through Sam's and his mom was so cute as she asked, "want any wine?," and he said no, but it was so cute, I could never/rarely see my mom doing that, and how explicitly she asked was hilarious. I push her around Sams. We end up at the outlet mall later after we drop his mom off. We also go to an expensive $20+ per plate Chinese place that was really tasty- it should have been for that price! We visit the local mall where we get his niece and mom gifts, and I get my sister a few thingys too. They don't really exchange gifts, and he talks about how he doesn't have to shop for gifts, yet he bought stuff for his mom, dad, and little niece. Cute- that sounds like him. We go back to the hotel since bottles of wine were buy 1 get 1 free and split that between the 2 of us.



THURSDAY


We were up early to go to Jersey, but of course had to play around. We stopped by Mike's mom's, then we called his friend LaRa whom I'd met before. We picked her up before going into the city. We drove into the city and found the hotel, walked to the Chelsea Market, a large indoor mall, then to a pizza place called Artichoke Pizza. We went back to the hotel and changed for going to see the Rockettes. We walk down to RadYo City and watch the show. It was really good- the Santa parts were slow, but the Rockettes were fantastic- so in sync! We walk down to RockefFFFeller Center after to see the tree and take pictures in front of it. We admire many of the store fronts and stop in stores like Uniqlo. We go uptown to meet Mike's friend Kaytee who was a veterinarian. She was coming from work and we met her at a bar, the MickGee's Bar shown in the TV show 2 1/2 Men that is right below her apartment. We then go to a restaurant in Hell'z Kitchen called Nook that I highly recommend as it is BYOB and very reasonable- great salmon- and Mike and his friend brought the booze back. It was cute. Everyone made comments about who was the drunk- Mike. It was pretty fun. We go back to Rockefeller and down to Time's Square. We eat at a TGI Fridays and have dessert- vanilla bean cheesecake. We get back to the hotel at 1am- we take the train back and walk a little bit.



FRIDAY
We get up at 9:30, shower, and go outside of the hotel to find flowers for Mike's mother. We get the car and head out of Jersey to a diner shown on Guy Fieri's Diner's, Drive Ins, and Dives on the Food Network. I had an omelette and it was ok. Mike dropped me off at the airport about 3 and we kiss/hug. I get in about 8pm. It was so hard to say goodbye and I would have loved to stay with him throughout Christmas.