Spots of Time

New York Excitement

The first order of business upon our arrival into Manhattan was to sit in for the NYC Philharmonic's rehearsal of Handel's Messiah.  I used to listen to The Messiah with my Dad at Christmastime when I was a kid, and then when I was in college he took me to see it performed by the Mormon youth symphony and Choir.  Seeing and hearing the Hallelujah chorus live for the first time was one of those rare moving experiences that I know I'll remember as long as I live. Since my girls are still so young I spent a lot of time prepping them for this event, so they would at least know what to expect (FYI: the New York Philharmonic has a great kids' website). 

I was a bit nervous when we got there and I saw that out of the several hundred people in attendance my girls were most likely the only ones under the age of thirty.  Fortunately, rehearsals have open seating and the girls were able to pick a couple of cozy box seats that afforded overhead views of the musicians, so there was plenty of action to keep their attention.  MJ was thrilled to be able to see a cello player live and up close, and since returning home has been practicing with a renewed vigor. The only downside to this performance was that it really made me miss my Dad, sometimes Oklahoma feels like a very long ways away...

 After our visit to the Philharmonic, we checked into our hotel and got all gussied up for a night out on the town.  We started out with afternoon tea (the lemonade variety) and sandwiches at American girl place. 

 
  
Just so you know, these dresses are killing me.  I know a few days ago I wrote something about how much I love watching my girls grow up, but I'm taking all of that back.  I want them to stay just like this forever.  Growing up is overrated anyway...  

 
After American Girl, we strolled along Fifth Avenue and checked out some of the extravagant Holiday decorations, then made our way to the Lincoln center for an evening performance of The Nutcracker Ballet.  This was the highlight of the trip for both the girls and me.  The girls didn't just enjoy the show, they were completely enthralled.  It was just that good.

Finally, as if our day couldn't get any better, after a long night out on the town we were greeted at the hotel by a handsome guy carrying a box of steaming hot New York pizza just for us. We devoured the pizza, and convinced the handsome pizza guy to stay the night.  He had to fly out to DC early the next morning, but we were grateful to have him for those few hours:

  

The next morning, we set out early to meet up with good friends at the Today show plaza. 

 
  For the record we were on TV, although from what I understand if you blinked you might have missed us.  Since I had my camera in hand when the today show crowd were out and about, I was able to capture the fleeting image of me, Wonderkid and my friend's cute fluffy-pink-coated baby.  So here you have it, I'm practically famous:

 
After our brief brush with fame, we headed down to 34th street where we mingled another well known figure, THE Macy's Santa.  Macy's has the most elaborate Santa display I've ever seen, it's called Santaland and the entire 8th floor of the building is decorated for the season.  It puts our local mall to shame:

(Yes it's true, in New York you can wear your jeans tucked into your boots and nobody so much as bats an eyelash.)

Our day of festivities continued on to central park where we took in a puppet show at the Swedish Cottage Marionette Theatre:

After the show, we spent a few minutes playing around in Central park then headed over to one of my favorite New York restaurants, Sarabeth's, for hot chocolate and lunch.  Before we left for home we stopped by Magnolia bakery for some cupcakes, and a procured a couple of scarves for the girls from a local street vendor.  While we were making the trek back home, cupcakes in hand, I kept thinking this trip just seemed like it was too good to be true. 

  

Have I mentioned that I love New York?    

It's Christmas Time in the City!

The girls and I just returned from another whirlwind jaunt to beautiful New York City.  This trip was just a little bit bigger and better than all of our previous trips, mostly because I finally worked up the courage to pack in our overnight bags:

I was a little nervous about having to keep track of two kids, two dolls, AND luggage in NYC, but once we rolled into Grand Central Station decorated in all it's Christmas glory, I knew it was all going to be worth it.

 
And it was...

 
...so very worth it...

...especially when day two brought out dear friends from home, who were able to share in the festivities with us.

 
 more tomorrow...
 

Birthday Dinner

Yesterday I took MJ to the cheesecake factory to celebrate number ten.  Wonderkid came along for moral support, and these two were like peas in a pod the whole night, finishing each other sentences and telling jokes that only they understand.  I don't think it would be possible for these two to be better friends with each other:

 
For dessert I let MJ pick out anything she wanted on the menu.  Years ago she probably would have chosen something with blueberry or bubblegum flavoring, but these days her tastes have matured significantly, so she decided to go with the chocolate velvet cake layered with cheesecake.  I was very proud.  It's clear that my years of gentle but continuous reminders that all desserets are not made equal and that you must learn early on to "respect the chocolate," has finally taken hold.

 
Incidentally, I also noticed yesterday that the girls did exactly what I always do when I know a delicious dessert lies at the end of a meal: eat three bites then the ask the server to package the rest of the meal to take home.  Now I've never actually told them it's okay to do it that way, it's just one of those unspoken rules (which only works because I never serve dessert with our meals at home).  I remember my grandmother doing the same thing when I was a little girl; I suppose it's just how the women in my family do things.

Yes, from the look of things here it seems I've raised these girls right:

 

Happy Birthday MJ!!!

Last night as I was tucking MJ into bed she told me, Mom this is the last time you'll ever tuck me in as a nine-year-old.  Up until that point I had been pretty even keeled about her turning ten, but the definitiveness of her little bedtime declaration made me feel pretty emotional about the whole thing.  In her mind, and in mine, she is still very much a little girl; she still plays with dolls, and still pretends to be a schoolteacher in our household stuffed animal classroom, but I look at some of her older friends and schoolmates and can see the writing on the wall. Her world is changing faster than it ever has before, and there is just no way she, or I, are going to be able to sit back and watch it from the sidelines.

 I must say, however, even though I'm a little sad that the past ten years have flown by so quickly, I kind of feel like in the past year or so we've grown into something just a little bit better and a little bit sweeter.  Maybe I just feel that way because I'm really loving life as her mom right now, but I think it's also because lately it seems that every day I wake up to see that she has only become more fascinating and complex than she was the day before.  She has reached that age where she is starting to discover her own interests and passions in life, independent of what KR and I have tried to teach her.  She's intelligent and thoughtful, and her conversations are more engaging than many adults I know.  She takes her own initiative to pursue the things she really cares about, and sometimes I'm pleasantly surprised by her endeavors, like this past year with her dedication to practicing the cello every day.  I know I've said this every year since the day she was born, but I think 10 years old is her best age so far; I just can't imagine it getting any better. Then again, I'll probably be saying the same thing next year as well...

Happy Number Ten MJ!!! 

Keeping it all in perspective

Yesterday was just one of those days.  I spent the morning volunteering in the girls' school and had planned on coming home in the afternoon to try to get ahead on a looming work deadline.  Unfortunately things took longer at the school than I had planned and I didn't have as much time that I needed to finish my project.  It certainly didn't help that the reason why I was late was because I had to throw away 350 flyers I had copied and sorted into the class folders, because the new secretary had inadvertently given me the yellow paper, which I now know is only to be used for principal notices.  

It was more than a little frustrating to have to go through the whole process twice, and I might have been a bit grumpy when I got into my car.  To top it all off, on the way home I remembered I had to finish a slide show video and burn 25 dvd's for our youth activity at church this week.  If I was more organized I would have bought the dvd's two weeks ago, but as you probably know by now, I'm rarely that organized.  Anyway, on my way home I stopped into target to procure said supplies, and bumped into this guy jamming in the keyboard aisle: 

You can't see it on the video, but there were several people behind me cheering and clapping at the end of each song.  This man was energetic and talented, and in my opinion much better than any department store piano player I've ever seen. All over the store people were talking to each other in excited tones, asking if they'd seen the man playing christmas music in the electronics department.  It was just awesome.

So, I don't know who you are Mr. Piano player man, but I just wanted to tell you thanks for totally making my day, and reminding me that there is much more to life than deadlines, projects, copy machines, and breeding piles of laundry.  You are my hero!