New York, NY

Thursday December 25th: Christmas Day Our day started with a visit to Ali. We dressed for the day and walked to Lenox Hill Hospital. Good news! Ali was able to be discharged after lunch. This news gave us all a huge ‘lift’. We left Ali in a much happier mood and strolled the 20 blocks downtown along beautiful Lexington Ave to our restaurant, ’81/2′ for lunch. Kath and Kim would have called this place ‘fine dining’. We had a pleasant time with delicious food. The highlight was probably the quail that the kids had for entree. It was a pity that Ali wasn’t there with us but we all looking forward to her joining us afterwards for our 4pm show, The Radio City Hall Christmas Spectacular with the Rockettes. The Christmas Spectacular lived up to its name and was worth doing, especially on Christmas Day. We battled the crowds to take in Time Square before jumping in a cab and heading home for an early night. Time Square was in full swing, completely manic with hawkers screaming ‘anyone want hanbags or stolen s#!*’. Almost anything goes in this place which makes the fabric of Manhattan so unusual and very interesting. Tomorrow is our last full day, Ali’s first, and we want to make the most of it. Our Christmas has been a most unusual one to say the least. At least we finished the day together and under one roof.