IT'S A WRAP

Los Angeles, CA
(April 7, 2012)

We woke up relatively early on our first official day in Los Angeles, partly because we were still on New York time so our brains believed it was three hours later, and partly because we scheduled brunch plans with a friend of ours.

We got ourselves ready, waved goodbye to Sal as he headed off to work at Soul Cycle, a popular New York-based spinning studio, and headed out to Hollywood to meet our friend Lori.

Lori was originally a friend of Miriam’s sister, Beth, but because of our mutual interest in show business, we three had become close, so it was a no-brainer to meet up with her during our stay in LA.

We agreed to meet at The Hudson, a bar/eatery in Hollywood and, conveniently, walking distance from Lori’s apartment. Well, walking distance for a girl like Lori who used to live in Boston and walked everywhere-- a proper LA person would NEVER walk anywhere, or so she told us. Side note: We also, amusingly, discovered how unwilling people are to travel from neighborhood to neighborhood, especially our NYC friends who should have been used to a lot of travel time getting from place to place, but, no, having to travel over 20 minutes somewhere was a bit out of everyone’s comfort zone. That amused us.

Anyway, we, luckily, found street parking right outside the restaurant, went inside, and found Lori waiting for us at a table. Everything on the menu looked delicious, but we were so busy catching up that it took us a while to place our order. Near the end of the meal, Lori pointed out that the restaurant was actually built up around a couple of 50-foot -plus trees, meaning that, literally, there were trees growing in the restaurant. How in the world did we miss that?? Especially the giant tree. Across. From. Our. Table. Doh!

Lori, Miriam, me, and the tree

Our meal came to an end but we weren’t ready to say goodbye to Lori just yet, so we kidnapped her. Obviously. Actually, it was pretty easy to convince her to come with us. All we had to do was tell her we were on our way to a shop in Burbank called It’s a Wrap, a consignment shop used by the movie/television studios. Everything in the shop was purchased for and/or used in television shows and films, and each item has a tag with a code telling for which studio or, more specifically, which show it was purchased. Once the studios no longer need the costume item, they sell it to It's a Wrap on consignment, and people like us can purchase them for cheap and then have the honor of saying, "These pants were used in [insert movie title here]."

We were having a field day perusing the merchandise and figuring out the various codes. I ended up finding a steal of a deal! A Zara trench coat used in “General Hospital”, originally retailing for $200, was on “winter” clearance (because in LA, a spring trench coat is considered a winter coat...*ahem*) for $30! A ridiculous steal! I was super excited because I had been looking for a cute spring trench coat, and this one practically fell in my lap!
We finally exhausted ourselves and made our purchases. I ended up scoring not only the trench coat but also a scarf for my mom from the short-lived television show “Detroit 1-8-7” and a beautiful tie for my brother from the reincarnated television show “Melrose Place”. Miriam walked away with a cute summer dress from the Warner Bros. Studio, stellar earrings used in The Green Hornet, and amazing, sparkling black heels from 21 Jump Street. I can’t remember at all what Lori ended up getting, but we were all really happy with our purchases.

Bob Odenkirk

After dropping Lori off at her apartment, we headed down to Sunset Boulevard to hit up my favorite—and the world’s largest—independent music shop in the world, Amoeba Music. We originally discovered Amoeba Music when visiting San Francisco in 2006, and when we drove down to LA later that same trip, we made sure to visit their Hollywood store. It’s a huge warehouse-sized store with new and used CDs, DVDs, LPs, and memorabilia. On my last visit I found a very hard to find import title by one of my favorite artists, Keri Noble, for über cheap (plus a ton of other music that filled up a good portion of my carry-on luggage…). This time around we searched for all our favorite artists, couldn’t find anything we didn’t already have, and headed to the classical and musicals sections instead. Jackpot! We loaded up on a bunch of used operas and musicals, and I even found the recording for Cirque du Soleil’s Wintuk—which is only available through Cirque—for one-third the price. Woo hoo!
At this point a charity auction started up at the store’s main podium, led by comedian/actor Bob Odenkirk, so we amused ourselves for a while listening to him auction off crazy and stupid things. It was fun. Then it was time to check out, and the cashier loaded us up with free bumper stickers, magnets, and hipster pins. We were golden!

The mural outside the building.

Going to In-n-Out Burger is required when visiting LA…or so we like to believe. Our appetites being ravenous, we decided to get the required visit out of the way and searched for any In-n-Out Burgers in the area. Our search pulled up a plethora of In-n-Outs to choose from—you could practically throw a rock and hit three at once. So we picked the easiest one to get to and had one heck of a time trying to park in their ridiculously built parking lot (you would think a city filled with drivers would have better parking lots...you would be wrong). The place was crazy crowded, but we managed to snag a table and enjoyed our quick bite to eat.

                

Inside Aroma

Having nothing else planned that afternoon, we decided to hit up the other It’s a Wrap store, located in West Hollywood. It was farther than we anticipated, so we only had 15 minutes to look around before they closed, but I was able to find a brand-spanking-new Drew Brees Saints jersey for Miriam for only $9 from the Warner Bros. Studio—it still had the tags on it! Then we hit up a nearby Target to get a few things we needed for our stay and headed back to Sal’s apartment in the not-so-bad rush hour traffic.

Back at Sal’s apartment we freshened up and prepared to meet up with my little cousin, Autumn, who moved out to LA right after she graduated from high school a few years ago. We rarely get to see each other anymore—it’s rare that we’re all at home in WI at the same time—so it was a nice treat to be able to see her on our trip.
We met at one of her favorite hang-outs in Burbank called Aroma Coffee & Tea Company, a cute little café offering a wide variety of teas and coffees, as well as amazing looking desserts and a fabulous array of savory dishes. Miriam and I settled on a fresh hummus platter and a beautiful salad, and the three of us grabbed a table in Aroma’s ultra-cute backyard, where we chatted about life and waxed philosophical before we all started getting tired.
After saying our goodbyes, we headed back to Sal’s, camped out in his living room chatting, and then hit the hay. We had a big day on the morrow-- a TMZ tour awaited us!

Me with my cousin Autumn

My favorite table at Aroma

LOSING OUR VIRGIN AMERICA VIRGINITY

(April 6 & 7, 2012)

I had been rehearsing for Damn Yankees! for two months, and it was high time for a vacation. Recently we’ve had a large number of friends move to Los Angeles, and we hadn’t been to LA in six years, so we figured it was a good time to hit up the West Coast.

We were getting nervous during the planning stage because the time we were going was Passover/Easter/Spring Break, which meant flights were escalating in price. Not cool for people who like to travel on a budget. Then luck befell us, and Virgin America had a fabulous sale. Awesome! We’ve always wanted to travel Virgin—their commercials are fun, you can order food directly to your seat through your personal TV, and they have pink and purple mood lighting. What?! Crazy talk. And we wanted it.

Our plan was to be there just shy of a week, staying with our friend Sal, one of the NYC escapees, who lives in North Hollywood. Our hope was to visit as many of our friends as possible whilst still having a banging time hitting up all the fun spots in LA.

I had been so overwhelmed with rehearsals that this was the first trip in a long time where I didn’t plan a thing. I threw caution to the wind and figured we would find things to do once we got there. Miriam found a good car rental through Budget, and, instead of renting a GPS (for almost the same price we paid for the car, mind you), we opted to finally (!!) upgrade to the much-coveted iPhone and download a free GPS app. A much better idea!

I grabbed the maps and my DK Top 10 Los Angeles guide book (seriously my favorite guide books—I get them for every city I travel to) from six years ago and just crossed my fingers that everything was relatively the same.

We had an 8pm departure out of JFK on Friday, so we sauntered there after I finished work. “Sauntered” because we were already checked in, weren’t checking any bags, and would have two hours to get through security once we arrived at the airport.

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: For some reason Virgin America flies out of the international terminal at JFK. Almost all international flights out of JFK seem to leave at the same time. The international terminal is currently under construction, so all passengers have to go through one tiny security gate. If you have an evening flight out of the international terminal at JFK, be prepared for a loooooooong wait.

The gates/security are a level below the departures/check-in area, so while we were making our way to an elevator, I noticed from the check-in balcony a peculiarly long line way off in the distance. I shrugged it off, and Miriam and I talked of grabbing a bite to eat before going through security. Upon getting to the bottom level, we decided we’d skip dinner and just head to the gate. That’s when we truly noticed the security line. It stretched for as far as we could see and then some. As we started walking towards the back of the line (and walking…and walking…and walking), our jaws started to drop. This wait was going to be interminable.

A half hour had crept by slowly, as had our place in line, and we started playing a fun game of watching unaware passengers happily walk past us on their way to the gate and betting on whether or not we’d see them walking past us again—this time to the back of the line. We very rarely lost that game. And those passengers were no longer happily walking past us…

By the time we finally made it into the roped off section of the security line, which meant the end was (kind of) in sight, we had only a half-hour until our flight was leaving. We were trying not to panic but the actual security part looked like utter chaos—there were a number of security agents checking passports and asking questions of every passenger, and then all these security lines converged into three security belts…which, in actuality, was a giant mob of frustrated people—and the belief we would actually make it through in time was dwindling.

Then a Virgin employee came through the line and pulled all of us on the looming LA flight to the “front” of the line—or as close as she could get us, which was about five people from where we were—and then, after the agents had checked our IDs and ushered us to the security scan part, she took every one of us and put us in the longest security line possible. All of us shook our heads at her stupidity, but at least we were all there together so they wouldn’t be leaving without us.

Luckily, our flight was right by the gate, and they were just beginning the boarding process as we arrived, so we climbed on board, happy to be able to sit down and relax. The ambiance was very cool. The purple lighting had a calming effect, which was beneficial to those who had just been through that horrendous security line (aka all of us), we all had personal televisions, and there were plugs at our seats (albeit tucked underneath the seats and hard to find) for all our electronics.

Miriam and I immediately perused the food menu located on our televisions, and a bunch of the food sounded really yummy, but we decided to hold off on ordering anything.

Once we took off there wasn’t a whole lot to watch that we didn’t have to pay for, and since it was such a late flight I decided to try to sleep some.

Here’s where I noticed another problem with Virgin. The aisles are so narrow that every time anybody—flight attendants included—walked passed my aisle seat, they hit me. Every. Time. Needless to say, sleeping was not so easy. It was a pretty active plane. Lots of free beverages and small bladders going around. Ugh.

Anyway, we landed at LAX a little after midnight (3am for our Eastern Standard Time brains…so we were exhausted), and then we waited a half-hour for the shuttle to take us to the rental car place. Talk about exasperating, especially when the other rental car places had shuttles continually passing by us. I guess that’s what you get for taking the cheapest rates… There were other New Yorkers waiting for the same shuttle, too, which turned into an interesting and entertaining time. Never keep a New Yorker waiting—one particular family did not hold back when the shuttle finally arrived.

We then had another half-hour wait for our rental car, since they only had two people working the counter that late at night, but eventually we got our cute little compact car, threw our stuff in the trunk, fired up the GPS, and went on our way.

We made it to our friend Sal’s place in North Hollywood and found him happily working on his computer in his living room. He gave us a quick tour of his place and informed us that we were to take his bed and he would sleep on the couch for the week. What?! We fought that one, but we lost the battle. Such a sweetie, that Sal.

He also introduced us to his prides and joys: Bubbles, Bop, and Fizz, his beloved fish.

By this point we three were exhausted and practically falling asleep on our feet, so off we went to bed. We had brunch plans in the morning, after all, and needed our beauty rest!

LITTLE BOXES ON A HILLSIDE

Dallas, TX
(January 27 – January 30, 2012)

My very first trip of the year had me traveling to Dallas, Texas, and I couldn’t get the Frank Loesser song “Big D” from The Most Happy Fella out of my head the entire time I was there.

Surprisingly, this was my first trip to Dallas. Surprising because a number of Miriam’s family members live there, including her sister and her family, and Miriam has traveled there a number of times. I’ve just never had the availability to join her. 

I mean, come on! There is a nephew down there who had already celebrated his first birthday, and I had never met him! But the real reason for the trip was Miriam: she was performing with the Lyric Stage in a concert version of Kismet, and there was no way I was going to miss it!

Now, before any of my Dallas-based friends freak out because I didn’t bother mentioning I was in town, it was a whirlwind of a trip. Three and a half days of family reunions, babies, a performance, and an “X” in the middle of the road. We’ll get to that in a moment…For now, let’s back up a bit.

Right after the New Year celebrations, Miriam flew down to Dallas to start her rehearsals, and I locked myself in my office/rehearsal space, madly trying to learn the score to Damn Yankees! (so many musical references and we’re only a few paragraphs in…hmm…). I took a job as a musical director with the community theater company I’ve performed with for a number of years and was trying to get my piano skills back up to snuff, so Miriam wasn’t too sad to leave me behind—she knew I’d be married to my piano for a few months.

I finally got to meet Teddy!

So, at the end of January, I boarded a plane and made my way to Big D. The first stop was Miriam’s sister’s house in Plano to see the kids, Edie and Teddy, and drop off the bags. I was running on very little sleep since we were casting Damn Yankees! until late Thursday night and I was on a 6am flight Friday morning. But I rallied and had fun squeezing the kids and catching up with the family members who were already there. 

My first impression of Dallas was this: flat deserts, freeways, lots of construction and strip malls. Sorry, Dallas. At one point, both Miriam’s mom and I started singing, “Little boxes on a hillside, little boxes made of ticky-tacky, little boxes on a hillside and they all look just the same.” Granted, I was staying in the suburban area of Plano, so I tried to cut it a little slack. 

Throughout my first day, the rest of Miriam’s family arrived and there were many happy reunions. Miriam had fun driving me around and pointing out the places where she hung out during her stay, and, come early evening, we got back in the car with her dad, drove to Irving, and dropped her off at the theater for her show (we were seeing the Saturday performances). The rest of us went back to her sister’s house and relaxed for the night.

Saturday was all a-buzz with intrigue. Miriam had planted a secret seed amongst her family that we were throwing her sister a surprise birthday party that afternoon, since her birthday was the following week. There’s nothing more fun than celebrating your birthday with almost all of your family-- it’s a rare treat these days with all of us spread out across the country.

We had our morning booked with various secret shopping excursions, and her sister was getting so frustrated with us because none of us wanted to go with her and her kids to a toddler’s birthday party that morning. She couldn’t understand why we would all travel to see them and not want to hang out. We had a good chuckle over that one.

As soon as she and her husband left the house, we were off! The first stop was to Costco to pick up the magnificent, multi-layered chocolate cake we had decorated the day before, as well as some fun munchies, then we went to a party supply store and stocked up on all our partying needs. Our last stop was Dickey’s Barbecue Pit, my first experience with the famous Dallas barbecue. I was excited. Unfortunately, we were taking it to go so I couldn't get the full experience, but it was still fun to be in there, and you got free ice cream with your purchase. This girl does not turn down free ice cream!

Fried okra, mac n cheese, and baked beans. Yummy!

                   

 

We then hightailed it home to set up everything before Beth arrived. They got done a little early, so her husband, Daniel, feigned sickness and stopped off at a gas station and lounged around in the bathroom for a while, spritzing his face with water for effect. It totally freaked Beth out-- she called, asking if she should take Daniel to the hospital. Again, we had a good chuckle. Soon, all the family had arrived and we were in position for Beth’s grand entrance. Needless to say, she was very surprised, and we had a fabulous time. 

After the party, we cleaned up and got ourselves ready for Miriam’s show that evening. The performance took place at the Lyric Stage in Irving, TX, a grand theater that puts on fully-staged and concert versions of classic musicals with a much-coveted full orchestra. Broadway producers these days seem to skimp on the size of the orchestra in order to save money, so to hear a full-sized orchestra is quite magical. Broadway producers: pay attention! We love our orchestras!

I had never seen Kismet other than the retched MGM movie musical from 1955, and I was pleasantly surprised by how beautiful the show is! It was a concert version, which means there were no sets, limited costumes, and very limited staging, but the music completely made up for that. Lyric Stage is part community theater and part professional theater. A lot of the ensemble is comprised of Dallas residents who love performing, while the lead characters are paid professionals. Miriam and the rest of the ensemble spent most of the time seated on risers, standing to sing, unless they had smaller ensemble pieces that allowed them to interact on the stage with the other characters. The music was glorious, and, again, the orchestra was fabulous! The leads had beautiful voices, and I was very impressed with all the ensemble singing. To be honest, the dancing was abhorrent-- that was the community theater aspect of it, I guess-- but on the whole it was a great production. 

Once the show was finished, Miriam and I waved good-bye to her family and friends and headed over to the producer’s home for a cast party. She introduced me to a number of her cast mates and I got in a long conversation with the music director; I told him about my new venture as a music director, and we chatted for a while on the beauty of community theater. People who do community theater do it for the fun of it, so their hearts are always in it. Professional actors do it for their jobs, so sometimes they forget the real reason they started doing theater in the first place. It’s so true. Community theater can be a really beautiful thing-- lots of heart!

Sunday morning turned out to be the only really free time Miriam and I would have to go see Dallas, so we woke up early and headed out to find the most famous spot in all of Dallas: where President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. It was a bit of a challenge to find, since we were lacking a GPS and the freeway exits we were told to use were all shut down for construction purposes (there was construction everywhere on the highways and freeways!), but eventually we made our way to downtown Dallas. 

A map of historical downtown Dallas

Our first stop was what some have deemed Founder’s Plaza, home to the replica of Dallas founder John Neely Bryan’s original log cabin. We were caught off guard by a homeless man sleeping on a wooden bench outside the log cabin. Apparently, he lost his key...  

Dealey Plaza and the library

Dealey Plaza

Next to this plaza is the Kennedy Memorial Plaza, which features an “open tomb” memorial, a large, open, rectangular, concrete fixture with no roof and only a slab of granite with John F. Kennedy’s name carved into it. It is said to represent the openness of JFK’s spirit.

The Old Red Museum

     

The grassy knoll

The "X" and the library

Then we took a short walk to Dealey Plaza, visited the various monuments, grabbed a cup of coffee at the memorial museum gift shop and cafe and then found the grassy knoll, made the obligatory grassy knoll jokes, and stood by the “X” in the middle of the road that marks the approximate location of where JFK was shot. There isn’t much there, but it’s still pretty powerful. Whilst standing by the “X” (when the traffic wasn’t coming by, of course) we glanced up to the Texas School Book Depository where Lee Harvey Oswald allegedly fired the weapon. I couldn’t help but replay the news footage in my head of the shooting. Pretty intense.

Once finished, it was time to try to find our way back to Plano, since we realized the return driving instructions had not been printed out for us. Thinking we would just go back the way we came, we headed out and started driving and driving...and driving. Finally, we conceded that we must be lost, since all civilization was slowly disappearing. We called Howard, one of Miriam’s relatives who has lived in Dallas for decades, and he was able to set us straight. Whew!

We made it home to have some quality time with the family before it was time to drop a number of them off at the airports. Miriam’s cousin was first, since she was leaving out of DFW airport, and then we had some time before we had to drop off her mother and brother, so we went in search of an easy place to eat dinner with our large clan. We finally settled on a Mexican place called Fuzzy's Taco Shop since it was the only eatery by the Love Field airport. None of us could get past the idea of an actual fuzzy taco and we totally expected it to be a gross place to eat, but it ended up being excellent and quite affordable!

The few of us remaining then headed back to Beth and Daniel’s house for one more relaxing night with them. The next day we packed up our things, grabbed coffee at the local Barnes & Noble where I was able to stalk a music manager I’ve spoken with a number of times on the phone, and then Miriam and her dad drove me to the airport. 

Back to reality for me, and time to practice that piano before rehearsals start! 

2011: A YEAR TO REMEMBER

As the end of 2011 drew near, I became very reflective on everything that had transpired in that one year alone. Part of the reason for the reflection was the unexpected passing of a young friend of mine right after Christmas.

I met him in February of 2011, while we were rehearsing a show together. We spent a few months together and became good friends, having amusing email banter in the months that followed our show. His passing was tragic to those who knew him, but he was such a bright light in the universe that we were all so much better for having known him. I'm thankful for the year 2011 for that very reason. I knew him and lost him all in the same year, but I'm thankful I had him in my life, even for only a brief moment.

That's what made me so reflective come New Year's Eve. As my friends were posting on their various Facebook accounts how much they hated 2011 and couldn't wait for it to be over, I sat back and thought about everything that had transpired that year.

We started the year with one of the biggest blizzards New York City had seen in years. It, literally, shut down the city. A girl who never gets snow-days because she lives in the city got three housebound days. It was frustrating and lovely at the same time. There's something to be said about sharing in an experience with a large group of people like that.

Later that month, as we were putting the final touches on our trip to Egypt, the Egyptians started rioting, our trip was put on hold, and we feared we wouldn't be able to travel there at all. Cut to May, when we not only traveled to Egypt, we experienced an Egypt that few tourists get to experience: an Egypt with very few tourists to crowd our pictures.

In February I was cast as a supporting character in a community theater production of The Pajama Game, where I met many new friends and got to exercise my acting skills, which was so much fun. We even had a the honor of having the artist Prudence Whittlesey come to one of our shows and paint pictures of us in action. I never thought I'd own a piece of artwork of my likeness!

Other highlights of my year include: meeting my newest nephew for the first time, biking over a few of the bridges in New York City, seeing marriage equality reach New York and celebrating with my fellow New Yorkers over that fact, hand-feeding giraffes, scuba diving for the first time while vacationing in Puerto Rico, experiencing my first hurricane, waiting in line with the other Harry Potter nutters for the midnight showing of the final movie and re-enacting every character's poster in the subway station at three o'clock in the morning after said movie with my fellow HP-fan and former roommate, softball season and being able to watch Miriam play (she's a really amazing player), performing Candide with the non-profit opera company coópera, and celebrating the holidays with family for the first time in years. I saw every musical on Broadway except two. I won coveted lottery tickets to the impossible-to-get-tickets show Book of Mormon and got to hang out backstage and have drinks with the cast at a nearby bar because Miriam plays on their softball team. I accepted the job of music director for my community theater's spring production of Damn Yankees, my first music directorship of a full-fledged musical, and I've become re-acquainted with my piano as a result.

I could focus on the negative things that happened to me, which there were many, or I can focus on the amazing things that happened. Joey came into my life. He may be gone, but he's still there. A glass half full. That's how I like to look at things. 2011 was a year to remember for many reasons. And I plan on remembering it.

As the midnight hour approached I decided to record myself singing "Auld Lang Syne" and put together a slideshow of some of my most memorable moments of the year. Enjoy, and Happy (Belated) New Year!

The slideshow: The blizzard that started the new year, 

Playing Mae in Pajama Game, 

Trip to Egypt (in front of the Pyramids and along the Nile at sunset), 

Saying goodbye to Zoe and Jadyn when they moved to New Orleans, 

Biking across the Brooklyn Bridge, 

Marriage equality in NY, 

Feeding giraffes at Six Flags, 

Trip to Puerto Rico (Old San Juan, snorkeling, and Playa Flamenco on Culebra), 

The final Harry Potter movie, 

Miriam playing softball with the Book of Mormon team, 

Relaxing in the countryside of upstate NY, 

Meeting my newest nephew, 

Roasting marshmallows during Hurricane Irene, 

Being at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, 

Celebrating my friend Steph's 30th birthday, 

Getting our Christmakkuh tree, 

Celebrating the holidays at Rockefeller Center, 

Saying goodbye to the beautiful spirit of Joey Wilgenbusch, 

Sunrise on Culebra

CHRISTMAS IN NEW YORK

New York, NY

(December, 2011)

No matter your religious affiliation, Christmas time in New York City is pretty spectacular. It’s one of my favorite times to be a resident of the Big Apple. It’s a time to celebrate your friends, your family, and the year you’ve shared together. It’s a time of hot cocoa and strings of bright, shining lights, of festive colors decorating every accessible pole, post, and window, of bundling up in hats and scarves and browsing the pop-up holiday markets, of cheerful and contagious carols being sung everywhere you turn, and of contemplative evenings with the ones you love.

Now, if you’re a Grinch or Ebenezer Scrooge type, this would sound absolutely appalling, but for me, it’s my favorite time of year, and the 1100 holiday songs on my iPod will prove it. 

The holiday season has it’s official kick-off at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade when Santa and Mrs. Claus pull in. At that point I feel it’s free reign to listen to the holiday music  and put up the decorations.

I don’t get to travel home for the holidays very often these days, as it’s usually very expensive and I can’t get time off from work before December 24th, so I’ve started my own traditions. This year, Miriam’s parents came in for the holiday, so I got to share my traditions with them.

Tradition #1: Sending out our annual holiday letter (or novella...as I always find a LOT to write about) and picture montage. With so many friends and family members far away, it’s always nice to reach out and share our year with them all.

"And I know all I need along is a path and a pal and a song, so I'm singing and I'm palling with you." - Shrek, the Musical

Tradition #2: Baking lots and lots of holiday goodness. I love to bake, and I love to share it with people who appreciate it. I’ve found plenty of people near and far who definitely appreciate it!

Tradition #3: Visiting the outdoor ice skating rinks, and, if I’m brave, actually going for a skate. In Manhattan, there are three very popular skating rinks: Rockefeller Center, Wollman Rink in Central Park, and Bryant Park. Of the three, Bryant Park is my favorite. Rockefeller Center is pretty expensive and very popular, so you are restricted on how long you can skate, while the entire tourist population of New York City stands above you and watches as you fall on your butt. Wollman Rink is a beautiful location, but there is a cost to skate there, as well, and the two separate times I attempted to go skating there, it was closed for a private event.

The reason I like Bryant Park so much is because it’s a central location (a couple blocks east of Times Square), it’s free to skate, and you can skate for as long as you want, although they do have periodic ice cleanings where everyone vacates the ice so the zamboni machine can come in, but you can simply wait off to the side. If you have your own skates, awesome. If you don’t, you can rent them.

Last year, I was on skates for the first time since childhood. It was an interesting and slightly frightening experience, but I survived! All I could think about was falling tragically and breaking something, so I probably didn’t look very graceful, but I had fun, nonetheless. Technically, you can’t have a camera on the ice, but we were able to sneak in a couple pictures.

This year, with Miriam’s parents, we stopped by the rink and pretended to skate on Christmas Eve. It was a pretty happening spot to be!

Ice skating last year

Miriam and her mom pretending to skate

Tradition #4: Visiting the holiday pop-up markets. There are various holiday markets throughout the city but my favorites are at Union Square and Bryant Park (but if you want to stay warm, head to the Grand Central holiday market, as those lucky vendors get to set up indoors). Vendors from all over come in for the month of December, selling almost anything you can think of out of their stalls, from spices to handmade jewelry,  from toasty warm food items to toasty, fun winter hats, from hand-carved woodwork to souvenirs from Asia, Africa, and Europe. The markets are fascinating and fun places to visit. In the past I’ve purchased and/or received as gifts handmade scarves and hats, necklaces of real leaves dipped in gold, silver, or copper, a meditation ring containing elephants on parade, handcrafted items from Africa, lovely bath salt scrubs, ornaments, and plenty of food consumed as I browsed. 

I heard someone in passing saying that the market in Union Square feels very similar to the markets in Germany. I can’t wait to compare that myself some day!

Tradition #5: Seeing all the decorated store windows. All the big department stores try to outdo each other during the holidays on getting the most creative and eye-popping store windows. You’ve got Bloomingdales, Bergdorff Goodman, Saks Fifth Avenue, Lord & Taylor, and the quintessential windows: Macy’s. I’m sure there are many more, but those are the ones I always try to see.

A little tip we figured out this year: If you want to see the windows with as few people as possible, try to go in the morning, specifically Christmas Eve morning. We ventured out to do last minute sight-seeing and shopping on Christmas Eve, and there was nary a soul out and about. Even the inside of Macy’s was calm!

Miriam's mom, Doris, at the Lord & Taylor windows

This year, we managed to see the windows of Saks, Lord & Taylor, and Macy’s. The Saks Fifth Avenue windows looked really cool from across the street, but up close, they left much to be desired. But Lord & Taylor’s and Macy’s windows were really fun. I must admit, though, that I was a little surprised at the windows on Macy’s 34th Street side. Their main windows are along 7th Avenue and change every year. The 34th Street side has always seemed to be images of A Miracle on 34th Street, but this year they decided to change it to Yes, Virginia, using a lot of the stuff from last year’s main windows.

The beautiful puppets in Macy's windows

The interactive portion of the window display-- make your own digital ornament

Avenue of the Americas decorations

Tradition #6: Visiting Rockefeller Center. Now, when I say Rockefeller Center, I’m including Radio City Music Hall. I usually start at Radio City Music Hall and take in all the fun decorations along Avenue of the Americas before culminating at the Rock Center Christmas tree. For me, I NEED to visit the tree by Christmas Eve. Earlier in December I was able to stop by there during the day, but, seriously, there is nothing like seeing the tree at night all lit up. I like to start out where the Today Show films, off to the side of the tree, and then I work my way over to 5th Avenue so I can see the tree with all the beautiful angels leading up to it (Saks Fifth Avenue is directly across the street). After I’ve taken a few pictures at the very beginning of the angels, I walk down a ways were there’s a great open spot amidst the angels where you can get a closer shot of the tree. Then it’s a must to head all the way down, to see the statue of the Titan Prometheus under the tree and overlooking the skating rink.

It really is a beautiful sight to behold, but be warned, it does get very crowded unless you go very late at night. And, if you’re standing at the 5th Avenue spot by the angels you may just catch the sound and light show that happens along the Saks building.

The tree from the side view

This year, we had one of the warmest Decembers in history, so we had a good time going out and doing all the sight-seeing. It was nice to have my extended family in town (Miriam’s folks) to celebrate with us.

Miriam and her parents in Times Square

As I prepare to shut off the Christmas lights for the season and pack everything up again until next year, I’m thankful for all the friends and family who brought the holiday season to life for me.

Here’s hoping you and yours had a magical holiday season!

Merry Christmahanukwanzikah!