December 8, Sunday
It was a pretty good flight. They changed our Uber pickup station on us
but we figured it out and got in the car for our two-hour ride to go 18 miles. We talked to Andrew while we waited for the Uber. Because it took so long in the traffic, they charged us an extra
$77. I didn't know Uber could do that. I don't think I have ever had it happen
before. Our room is so nice! It's on the 25th floor and has a great view of Times Square.
Once we got settled into the room, Andrew was called us again. So, we
talked to him, Emily, Daniel, and Jonny. Papa and Nathaniel had been on while
we were in the car. Daniel gave us a short FHE lesson, talked about a few
more things, had a prayer together, and said our goodbyes. We told the kids we needed
to go because we were starving. We looked at many options of where to go but we
hadn't settled on anything. I wanted to go to Ellen's Starlight Diner but when
we drove past the line was literally around the corner out the door. There is
another diner called the Carnegie Diner that I wanted to go to and I thought I
was going to right direction going behind the hotel, but apparently, I was
completely wrong. Actually, we found out later that I was correct. As I was
stressing and asking Michael to figure out what we should do, I saw this
weird-looking store with a big red door front on it. I wondered what it was
inside and if it was a restaurant or something and I got on my tiptoes and
looked in and there were people in there drinking. I wondered if it was an
actual restaurant so we went to check it out and sure enough, it was. She asked
us if we had a reservation which, of course, we didn't and I asked if they take
walk-ins and she said no sorry they're full. Then I asked about lunch tomorrow
because I thought that might be fun, she said a walk-in for lunch tomorrow
would be fine so we thanked her and turned around to leave. Then she stopped us
and said actually, a table just opened up. It was kismet! I couldn't believe
it! That's such a fun thing about travel is when you do something spontaneous
like that and it was awesome! Our dinner was absolutely lovely! We ordered the
shrimp tempura appetizer. Michael tried to order the chicken pot pie which I
was really excited about trying but they had just run out and sold the last one
so he got the fish and chips and I got the lamb. The dinner was delicious, and the decor was amazing!
We left the restaurant and I took a couple more
pictures. We walked around the block a little bit to go to Times Square. We
stopped at a bakery I had found called Mia's Bakery. Michael got a pecan
cheesecake and I got a piece of almond cake and a macaron. Then we headed over
to Times Square. I thought it was really cool. We couldn't understand why
everyone was just milling around. We didn't know if they were waiting for an
event or this is just how it was. We later figured out that this is just how it
is. We took a bunch of pictures and selfies and videos. There was a guy walking
around with a sign offering to take pictures. We asked him how much and he said
$10 (per picture) and then he had another guy take our picture in three different locations.
He took a ton of pictures. We chose three and asked how much and she said it was $30
or if we paid her $40, she'd give them all to us. Michael thought that was a
good idea so that's what we did.
We walked past some cool Christmas displays like
the big ornaments right across from Radio City Music Hall. It was so cool to be
right there at Radio City Music Hall and it was absolutely gorgeous inside.
Just walking into the lobby was breathtaking. And, of course, the auditorium
was phenomenal. Even the women's bathroom was really cool because it had a big
lounge before you got to the bathrooms and Michael says so did the men's. I
kept thinking that people who live there are so lucky that they can go there
all the time if they want to. I saw the souvenir counter and I knew I had to
get some merch. I had to get something that said Rockettes on it so Michael and
I stood in line for a little bit. I ended up getting a little pouch that said
Rockettes, some Santa fuzzy socks, and some fingerless gloves. Then we went to
our seats. They were absolutely perfect.
The show was absolutely spectacular. It really
is a Christmas spectacular! They started out with the music from the organs.
For the first number, they were in the deer costumes. They looked so fantastic
and they were right there so close to us and it was so cool to watch. There was
a Santa interspersed between their performances and there would be cute little
vignettes in between. I assume that was so they could change their clothes and
take a break and get ready for the next number. The Nutcracker number was
toward the beginning and it was absolutely fantastic! It was even better than I
expected. I knew they did the Nutcracker fall. It was really cool to see that
in person. But even better was the number that they did where they were all in
a single file line. Half of them were facing one way and half of them were
facing the other and they walked in a big circle. The precision was incredible!
It was just so phenomenal to watch. I loved every second of it. I loved the
part where they brought a bus on stage and the girls were dancing and they came
out of the bus and they changed costumes as they walked out of the bus into
their red and green costumes. They had been wearing little white coats with fur
accents and red and green designs on it and then when they came out of the bus,
they took those off. I loved every single kick line they did. I loved
everything about it! They had a little Nutcracker number and a cute one with
some teddy bears. They had regular dancers and singers. My other favorite part
was the Santa dance. I counted and in most of the numbers they had 36
Rockettes. I think in one of them they only had 30 but most of them they had
36. For the Santas, they started out with the regular Santa, then they added
some more male Santas. It was kind of like they were duplicating Santas. Then I
could tell that was the regular dancers dressed as Santas. There were men and
women in those parts. Then the Rockettes came out dressed as Santas. They
danced on a big round circle in the middle of the stage that raised up. There
had to be over 40 dancers. It was so cute! I also loved the scene where they
were dressed up as Ellie’s dolls and danced with the blocks and it spelled out
“Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year” at the end. You can tell how many
dancers there were by the number of characters in the message, which is 36. I
was surprised at the end that they did a whole Nativity scene. They started it
with a mom reading the Christmas story to her daughter from the Bible. They
brought in the wisemen with real camels and real sheep and a real donkey. They
had the wisemen and their servants and they presented the gifts to Jesus. It
was amazing and the costumes were incredible! I loved it! It was like a
Christmas pageant. The entire show exceeded my expectations and it was worth
everything it took to get there. After the show was over, I had a hard time
leaving. One of the numbers had shot out some long sparkly confetti and there
was some that landed in front of us so I grabbed some of that and gave it to
the little girl behind us and she was happy about that. But then there were
plenty of laying around so I took a handful because they were going to just
throw it away anyway. I thought maybe I'd give it to some little girls as we
left but the one I offered it to already had one so I gave up on that idea.
Anyway, I gathered some of that and then we took a few more pictures. One of
the workers took a couple pictures for us so that was nice. But then they
motioned us out because they had to get ready for the next show and they were
already cleaning before we even left.
This is the restaurant from the outside. It was called Lillie's Victorian Establishment.
They also had a set up where you could stand in the middle and they
put your phone on a mechanism and had it spin around you. I saw people doing
that and it looked pretty fun but I wasn't really interested. They had that
setup in multiple places around the city. On the way back to the hotel, we
walked through a little Christmas market and they had and I got a magnet. I
also saw another bakery that I want to try tomorrow night. We got ready for bed
and had our treats. My macaron was hard as a rock and my almond cake was just
OK but Michael's pecan cheesecake was delicious so I had a little of that and
then we went to bed.
December 9, Monday
Here’s the list of numbers in the
show:
The Overture with Singing Ushers
Sleigh Ride (Reindeer dance)
Need A Little Christmas (Santa arrives
to Radio City)
“12 Days of Christmas” Tap Dance
Number
The Nutcracker (with Dancing Bears)
Wooden Soldiers
New York at Christmas (Bus Tour/Times
Square)
Department Store (Ellie’s
Christmas Wish to Santa)
Dancing Santas
Chestnuts Sing-Along with Santa’s
Helpers
Santa’s Workshop (Santa, Mrs.
Claus & Elves Prepare Toys)
Rag Dolls
Man with the Bag (Mrs. Claus’
Solo)
Dance of the Frost Fairies
Nativity Scene
Finale (after Nativity scene)
After the show
Unfortunately, it was raining when we left the
theater. Rain had been predicted for all day Sunday and all day Monday and this
was the first time we had to deal with the rain so that was actually pretty
lucky. It wasn't raining that hard at that point so I just put my hood up and
we walked over to Oceana for lunch. I was really grateful I
had made that reservation. It was only a couple blocks away and we had passed it on the way
there so we knew where to go. It was a wonderful restaurant! The hostess was
super friendly and complimented my sparkly shoes. Unfortunately, my feet were
already getting wet. Anyway, the lunch was delicious. I had the branzino. I had
to Google it and it said it was a type of Sea bass so that was an easy choice.
Michael got the halibut. I even liked the cauliflower. It was weird like a mix
between cauliflower and asparagus but it was good and it had a really yummy
sauce. Michael thought his was just OK. We couldn't resist the dessert called
warm pumpkin cake. It had delicious layers and some kind of pumpkin brittle and
cinnamon ice cream. Michael said he wonders where the cinnamon ice cream has
been all his life and I agreed. I've never had anything like it and it was
amazing. I'm not a huge pumpkin fan but that was great.
After lunch, I wanted to go to the Giving
Machine. We decided we would brave the rain and walk over there. We got out the
umbrella and headed out. We walked past Rockefeller Center and saw the big tree
and got some pictures.
We saw so many cool things along the way. We
walked past the New York Public library. I wanted to check out Bryant Park which is
around the corner and so we did that but it was mostly just some Christmas
shops and we didn't really have the time or the energy for that, or the space
in our suitcases anyway, and Michael said he thought it would be cool to go
into the library so we went back there. We went into a side entrance but
eventually made it up to the lobby. I had to take some pictures up there
because it was so cool. The coolest room that we wanted to see was the research
room but that was not an option unless you were actually researching something.
So, we walked around a little bit. There was a treasures room and we saw things
like the original Winnie the Pooh teddy bear and they had PL Travers' umbrella.
Michael saw the original works of Plato in Greek from 1513 so that was pretty
cool.
After the library, we kept heading toward the
Giving Machine. It was on 38th Street and Park Avenue. So, it was about 11
blocks south and three blocks east. They moved the Giving Machine to the Church
of our Saviour Catholic Church. It was on a corner and we could see it right
away. It was right next to a cool Nativity scene. I took some videos
and pictures. By the time we got to the Giving Machine, there were a group of
four ladies there. They apologized for taking too long and I said to please take their time
because we have one at home. They all said they did, too. In fact, one of the
ladies is from Queen Creek. We chatted with them for a few minutes and took their picture and they
took ours. When they left, I did a few more videos and we donated baby formula
and story books.
After that, we were cold and tired and wet and
so we hailed a taxi. It took us a full 40 minutes to get back to our hotel and
cost us $40. We went up to our room to take a break. We both got a good nap. By
the time we got to the room, it was 4:40 PM. I probably slept too long but I set
my alarm for 8:15 PM just to make sure I didn't sleep all night. Michael said
let's get up and go somewhere. I had decided I'd like to get some pizza. We had
walked past a couple pizza places and they looked amazing. There was one right
around the corner. So, we got dressed and left the hotel. I wanted to walk past
Rockefeller Center one more time so I could see the tree at night and also see
the Christmas displays on Fifth Avenue on the part that we hadn’t seen yet.
When we walked to the Giving Machine, we had
walked down Fifth Avenue but we missed the part that was to the east. So, we
walked past Rockefeller Center on the other side and then walked all around it
and came back up 49th St. It was also cool to see FAO Schwartz and a couple of
really cool shops like Swarovski crystal and Michael Kors and things like that.
The Saks Fifth Avenue shop windows were amazing and I got some pictures there.
After that, we walked past the Christmas markets one last time and went to the bakery that I had seen last night called New York Bakery. Michael got a love me cake which was a chocolate cake and he was disappointed that it had mousse in it and not just plain cake. We also got a cheesecake that was amazing and we shared that and ate it all up. I also got a chocolate chip cookie and a croissant doughnut which doesn't taste anything like the croissant donuts that I've had because it was way too thick. On the corner where our hotel is, I couldn't resist stopping to get a pretzel. The guy looked like he needed some customers so I let him talk me into getting a chicken kebab as well. He heated them both up on this little grill thing and he burned the pretzel. And then the chicken could've been cooked even longer because it was kind of raw when we ate it. Anyway, we went back to our room. It was funny because we passed by the people who we had seen at Lillian's Victorian Restaurant who had taken our picture. It turns out they're staying at the same hotel. We went back to our room and ate our treats and got ready for bed. I think it was just after midnight when we finally got to bed. It was a full, fantastic day!
View from our hotel
View from our room
All of our treats
View from our hotel the morning we left
We also saw the St. Patrick's Cathedral right
there on the corner across from Saks Fifth Avenue. That church is amazing!
Michael and I both agreed it's even cooler than La Sagrada Familia. We would've
liked to go inside but we checked the hours and it closed at 8:45 PM and by
then it was 10 PM so we missed that opportunity but it was still cool to see
and we got some pictures.
We headed to Ray's Pizza which was the pizza
place I had seen. When we walked by it last night, I said it looks good and a
lady sitting there said yes, it is good so I trusted a random stranger. It
wasn't bad, but it wasn't nearly as good as I thought it would be. It was
really thin and they reheated it and so part of the pizza was fine but the rest
of it was kind of like eating a cracker.
After that, we walked past the Christmas markets one last time and went to the bakery that I had seen last night called New York Bakery. Michael got a love me cake which was a chocolate cake and he was disappointed that it had mousse in it and not just plain cake. We also got a cheesecake that was amazing and we shared that and ate it all up. I also got a chocolate chip cookie and a croissant doughnut which doesn't taste anything like the croissant donuts that I've had because it was way too thick. On the corner where our hotel is, I couldn't resist stopping to get a pretzel. The guy looked like he needed some customers so I let him talk me into getting a chicken kebab as well. He heated them both up on this little grill thing and he burned the pretzel. And then the chicken could've been cooked even longer because it was kind of raw when we ate it. Anyway, we went back to our room. It was funny because we passed by the people who we had seen at Lillian's Victorian Restaurant who had taken our picture. It turns out they're staying at the same hotel. We went back to our room and ate our treats and got ready for bed. I think it was just after midnight when we finally got to bed. It was a full, fantastic day!
View as we walk to our hotel
December 10, Tuesday
Michael called the Uber and it quickly came and got us to the airport in an hour so that was good. We went through the Queens tunnel. There was no line at all for security so that was easy. The lady next to us wanted to talk the whole time, lol. She was nice, though. She started out by asking if I was excited to get back to Phoenix and I said yes and asked her if that's where she lived and she does and we told her so did we. Her name is Julia and she told me that she's a creator and was in New York for a conference. She asked what we do and I told her about Wisdom and she was fascinated by it. She started asking all kinds of questions for about the next two hours. Eventually, Michael stopped pretending to sleep and answered some questions, too. I'm just kidding, he wasn't really pretending but he was trying to sleep but he heard most of our conversation. She started asking him some questions directly about being a CEO and managing the company and marketing and all of that. Apparently, her niche is video games and sports betting. I didn't really ask too much about it, honestly. But she had a million questions for us. I could barely keep my eyes open and started dozing off while they kept talking. Michael says I slept for about an hour and a half so that was great. We said our goodbyes to her and wished her luck as we got off the plane. The flight was supposed to land at 4:36 PM but it landed a few minutes early. By 4:56 PM, we were in the car heading out of the parking garage and texting the boys. We went on the north 202 and picked up Canes for the boys and brought it home. We ate with the boys and Michael unpacked even before we started eating. Daniel had been waiting to play video games with his friends so he did that. Daniel had his interview with Bishop at 8:30 PM. Apparently, Bishop asked him to be the first assistant in the Priests quorum so I'm thrilled about that! I think that's wonderful news! I'm so proud of him for accepting the calling! We read scriptures together and had a prayer. Then the boys started getting ready for bed. It's been a fantastic day!
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