Empire State of Mind: Rockefeller Tree Lighting

O Christmas Tree..

Last night was the annual New York City tree lighting at Rockefeller Center. I remember being little and watching it on TV, telling my parents one day I wanted to be there. Well last night I was able to check this off my bucket list. All the interns at FC were allowed to leave work at 4:30 so we could head up to Rockefeller. We made it there around 5:00 with about 10,000 other people. After 30 minutes of pushing through crowds and on the verge of giving up and never seeing the tree we decided to try a different route. We walked up to 51st & Rockefeller and were pleasantly surprised to see not many people had discovered this view. We were able to score a prime spot to the right side of the tree looking from the side. I made friends with two precious women from Utah, one who was pregnant with her first baby on their first trip to NY. Now that we had claimed our spots we were there for the long haul and had 2 more hours of standing in the 30 degree weather until the ceremony started. Obviously, being the smart girls SB and I are we planned ahead and packed snacks (big girls have to eat)!!

Finally 7 O'Clock rolled around and things finally got started. Michael Buble started it off and then as the night continued we heard Tony Bennet, Big Time Rush, Cee Lo, Neil Diamond, Javier Colon, Carol King, Katherine McPhee, and JB! Obviously our favorite part was Justin Beiber!!!!!! For all you Beiber fans, he was beyond adorable and sang with Usher, Busta Rhymes, and Mariah Carey!! Pretty sure my life is officially complete!

At 8:55, after 2 hours of singing the moment we had been waiting 4 hours for had arrived. The mayor of New York flipped the switch to the lights and right there in front of us we saw the 74 ft. tree light up. The holiday season has now officially begun in the city!