My friend Tamara and I went to see the Christmas Tree and Neopolitan Baroque Creche at the Metrolpolitan Museum of Art. It dates back to the 18th Century, and was stunning. It was hard to capture it in pictures. But I sure tried. We had a tour guide give us an hour long talk as we walked around the tree, explaining the symbolism of the figures; it was so fascinating, and I couldn't remember most of it to write here if I tried. :-) It was a lot of information, but really cool. Merry Christmas, from the 1700's.
Last weekend I babysat on the 33rd floor of a high rise apartment building. The views were stunning, even though it was overcast. But I did have a good time with my filters. Pretty cool, huh? The first and third have no filter. The second and fourth are the same shot with filters. Good job, iPhone.
My friend Dallin came up with this idea to decorate a Christmas tree with origami. So we all jumped on board, because any excuse for a party is a good excuse. Especially at Christmas, with a real tree!
The first one was at Rachel and Emily's place. This is Dallin diligently trying to teach Brook how to make something cool, and I don't think she is having it.
Ty, with his mustache and Christmas sweater, is totally winning in the spirit department.
Here was my one attempt for the night, a lily, apparently.
After some failed picture attempts, I decided my face wasn't fit for public consumption that night, so Ty obligingly helped me out with that. He is a photographer, after all.
Dallin with the almost-finished product.
We had such a great time, we did it the next weekend at Amber's place!
My little Charlie Brown Christmas tree, and I love it.
Annual Jeff and Nicole Christmas night, with dinner and a cheesy Christmas movie. We are trying to not have double chins in this picture, just like Dolly Parton, who we were watching in A Smokey Mountain Christmas. (Disclaimer- Jeff and I are not dating, though I have had many comments and questions about it. He is one of my dearest friends, and that is all. :-))
We really should send out Christmas cards....
Sometimes you go to see the Rockefeller Tree on a rainy night, and look up at this. The star of the tree is at the very bottom. I just wonder where the Batman signal was, because clearly he was being summoned to Gotham City.
The gorgeous Rockefeller Tree, of course. And my friend David and I in front, looking very wet.
Jon and I at the stake Christmas Concert. We both performed. I sang O Holy Night, and he sang Silent Night. My performance was not as good as I knew it could have been, and I was pretty disappointed. But I guess most people didn't notice. I sure did. That's what I get for being a perfectionist. But the concert went well; we did two performances and they were both packed.
Somehow, when I was 12 and Jen was born, I had the forethought to decide that I wanted to give all my nieces and nephews their Baby's First Christmas ornaments. Who knew that back then, I would already know I would be campaigning for the title of Favorite Aunt? 23 years and 29 nieces and nephews later, it's still my thing for all my babies. Maggie got hers this year, and I think that is it. Who wants to volunteer to give them to my own babies? I mean, I can do it, but I thought I might give someone else the chance to be the awesome aunt/uncle....
Yesterday I volunteered at Holy Apostle Soup Kitchen, where only the best and classiest in sanitary wear are acceptable.
But these windows! The whole church was filled with these. So stunning.
Thanksgiving weekend- One of the best of the year, I say. I love it. Here's what I did:
Thanksgiving prep with Rachel Wednesday night. She is a machine, with her rolls and pie making skills. It was awesome. I just provided manual labor.
I met up with some other friends to go see the balloons being blown up for the parade. However, I have to say it was freezing and raining and muddy and crowded. All of the those things= fun factor going way down for me. It was interesting, but I was glad to go back inside at the end of it.
Selfie fail in front of the iconic Macys star balloons.
Trying and failing to take a good selfie with my friend Shaun in front of Spiderman.
And then, early the next morning, I got up to do something that I kind of never had the inclination to do. I went to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.
I promise I'm not a total party pooper, but I have never wanted to go bad enough to get up really early, fight the crowds and cold, etc., when I could just watch it on TV. Besides, my favorite part of the parade is at the beginning when I get to watch Broadway shows perform, and you can't see that live unless you are at the right spot.
We were up toward the beginning of the parade route, but Central Park.
Anyway, I defnitely did not get there as early as my friend Kristy, who saved the spot for the rest of us. But I still got there before 8am, which was early enough for me.
It really was fun! The most fun part about it was seeing the marching bands live, and seeing floats go by that I grew up seeing on TV, like Snoopy and Woodstock, Spiderman, Hello Kitty, and other fun ones. And Turkey Tom!! The best!
I don't know that it will become a yearly tradition for me (I can almost guarantee that it won't) but I am glad I went at least once. :-)
Ah, yes, then dinner happened at Ros' place. It was lovely, and my strechy pants came in handy, naturally. We did pretty well, I think.
I love these ladies that I hosted with. We took so many pictures, trying to find a good one, and it just never really worked out.
Jeff was there, of course, as one of my favorite people!
The next day I went on a chilly autumn walk with a couple of friends on the Highline. I love that place, and I got such a great picture. Good job, little iPhone.
Saturday I did a concert called Connecting Musicality where I was paired up with an Irish songwriter, Alan Tobin. We skyped a few times to get to know each other, and then he wrote a song for me that I performed in NYC while he wached via Skype from Dublin. There was a whole group of us involved. It was cool, and here is my song, Stars in a Broadway Sky:
Saturday night ended in a Karaoke party with my friends, where Mala and I threw out some hard core Whitney Houston. The Greatest Love of All, specifically. Nailed it, as you can see.
Thanksgiving weekend was a success, I would say. On to Christmas, or in other words, I'll sleep in January...
