Christmas and New Years in New York City

I am so sorry that it has been so long. Let me catch you up quickly.
So on December 19th I left for New York City to spend Christmas and New Years with my friend ZuShanna. On Christmas Eve day we went to a friend of hers who had invited a bunch of people over for brunch. Late that night we went to Zu's grandparents' where the whole family opened their presents. At first it took a while for everybody to get there and then suddenly people started handing out and opening up presents.
People were in various rooms letting others bring their presents to the person it was for. To me this didn't look like anything you see in all those American family Christmas movies they show every year. But that's OK! On Christmas Day, Zu, her boyfriend Keith and I opened up each others presents and that was a lot more fun that the night before.
On New Years Eve we went to the church Zu and Keith go to. That was a lot of fun, a big Choir, good songs and a good message. Afterwards we went back to Zu's place with a bunch of friends, we ordered Pizza, watched the ball drop on TV and I heard, what I thought was fire works, but according to my friends were gunshots. That is how Brooklyn celebrates the New Year!!!
While in New York, I also went to Central Park. It was a beautiful, but very cold day (F13/C-10). We also went to the Whitney Museum and Ice Skating in Bryant Park. As well, I had to get a dress for the formal dinner I was going to attend at the All Staff Conference. So with my friend Aisha I went to Macy's and practically put on every dress in the store that was on Sale. A bit to big, a bit to small, 'Oh sorry this one is not on sale'! So we decided to grab a bite to eat and take a little break. After resting up, we were roaming around the youth section and they had the cutest dresses there. So after putting on only one dress I was done! Now, why in the world didn't we start there?