NYC

As I mentioned, Jonathan and I made a quick trip to New York City over the holidays. It was a last minute idea squeezed into a schedule already packed full of holiday travel plans, but it was worth it. We flew in early Friday morning to make the most of the day. We visited the MoMA, a must on my list since I had missed it on my first trip to the city.

I've shown this last painting to my art students and kids many times, but had no idea it was this large. It was fun seeing it in person.

After the MoMA, we went to grab a bite to eat before heading to an improv comedy show. Since we had a little extra time, Jonathan suggested that we should go see some Christmas window displays before catching the subway. But I soon found myself running behind Jonathan, who had miscalculated the time, in a panic to catch the train. He seemed very nervous and quite upset about the possibility of missing this show that cost a whopping $20 total for tickets. The whole time on the subway ride, Jonathan was fidgeting with his phone, checking the time. I really couldn't understand why he cared so much, but then again, we are big fans of improv. Once we reached our stop, Jon said we had two minutes to make it three blocks, so we sprinted, and made it inside before they shut the doors. We ran downstairs to the basement to get the tickets. I noticed a strange person with familiar hair, standing in the corner with a scarf wrapped around his face. I turned to Jonathan to ask about the tickets, and turned back to see my brother standing there in front of me! Unbeknownst to me, Jonathan had arranged for my brother and his friend, Blake, who live in DC, to meet us in New York for the weekend. All of the panic over the prospect of missing a little improv comedy show, really stemmed from an almost botched surprise.

The rest of the weekend was spent going to shows, acting like tourists, and laughing...a lot.

It was a whirlwind of a weekend, exhausting, but so much fun. I think we should make a trip to NYC an annual Christmas tradition.

xo

nessa dee 

Holidaze

I can't believe we're at the end of 2014 already. This year went by in a blink. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and are gearing up for the new year. I'm ready to take 2015 by force. You should see the giant lists I wrote on our three hour drive back home from visiting family.

The holidays were a bit hectic for us, as I'm sure they are for most, but this December was exceptionally busy. I went on five different trips, over the course of three weeks mostly to visit family. It was exhausting, but worth it. Four of our trips took us to different parts of the Lone Star State, but the fifth was a last minute trek to New York City. Jonathan had to be there for work, so in a hasty decision, we flew up early together to spend a weekend in the Big Apple to see it adorned for the holidays. It was a whirlwind of a weekend with a big surprise, which I'll tell you more about in a future post.  For now, though, I hope you have a safe and happy new year!

Happy 2015!

xo

nessa dee

Day 5

It's the final day of my commitment to post about our trip 5 days in a row. This little experiment has reminded me of the reason why I usually post once every 3 weeks or so. It's a lot of work!! Granted, I did have to go through about 700 pictures every day and try to narrow it down to a select few from our trip, and I'm still trying to figure out this whole layout thing through trial and error. (What you see on the draft is not the same as when you post it!) I think I can find a happy medium though, maybe 1 to 2 posts a week, for example.

Here it is, day 5. Well....we didn't really do anything on the final day of our trip except pack up our stuff, and also, our camera battery died, so we don't have any pictures from that day either. Instead, I will leave you with a plethora of pictures from the other four days.

Day 4

**Just a little note if you checked the blog early yesterday--I was having computer troubles, so I didn't post the pictures until last night, so if you missed them, they're there now.


We actually got up a little earlier on this day in order to grab breakfast at a restaurant instead of our usual feast from those oh so familiar golden arches. The diner we ate at was housed under a bridge and flanked on either side by a street, so it was fun to watch the city activity as we ate our delicious food. Satisfied, we walked to our first stop of the day, one of my favorites, the New York City Public Library. As the daughter of a librarian, I was eager to visit this place and take a lot of pictures for my mom. It was amazing to see the collections of books housed amongst such beautiful craftsmanship. I was quite amused by the printed signs stating "drop books off here" taped to the gorgeous fluted wood columns at the receptionist desk. I guess it seemed odd that something with such beautiful history and architecture was actually a functioning library. Before we left, we took a quick glance at the Gutenberg Bible and the actual stuffed animals that inspired A.A. Milne to write Winnie the Pooh. The next stop was St. Patrick's Cathedral. We spent a good 45 minutes inside trying to get pictures from every angle, but our pictures don't do this place justice.

As with the library, the detail and craftsmanship put into this structure is remarkable. On to the next thing on our agenda, a trip to FAO Schwartz. Finn was sleeping as we arrived in one of the most magical toy stores in the world, but he woke up just in time to try out the big piano made famous in the movie Big. Still sleepy, I sat him down on the keys, and he proceeded to walk off the piano, lay on the floor, hide his face and cry. Audrie, however, impressed us with her skills, playing Chopsticks as far as her legs could reach. After watching the big piano show, the kids scanned the store to find a special small gift courtesy of their MiMi. Now, when you tell a kid that they can pick out a small souvenir in a toy store like FAO Schwartz, some stress is involved. Finn picked out a collection of small tractors, while Audrie eventually settled on a magic kit. We grabbed lunch at a pizza place determined to be the best pizza in the world by Oprah's best friend, Gayle. It was a little hole in the wall, but full of character and local flavor. Our last stop of the day was Sheep Meadow in Central Park. We let the kids run and play to their heart's desire. I imagine that this was Finn's favorite part of the trip after spending most of the time riding in a stroller. We finally had to drag the kids away and head back to the hotel. And I just remembered, this is the day we took our detour to Queens, not on Day 3. Oops! Oh well, we eventually made it back to our hotel. Then, at 11:00 PM, Jonathan decided that we couldn't leave New York City without seeing the Empire State Building up close, so we grabbed our jackets and headed out, leaving Finn behind with MiMi and Aunt Susie. It was quite chilly atop, but so worth it to see the lights illuminating the land as far as the eye could see. Popsie put a few quarters into the coin operated binoculars, peered through and informed us that The Gap was having a sale on jeans, AND that he read the price tag on one pair and they were a bargain at $19.99! He always knows how to crack us up. We rode down the elevator, snapped a few more pictures, and called it a night.

ND