New York City at Christmastime ~ The Metropolitan and Saks Fifth Avenue Light Show

For years now, we have been trying to get to NYC at Christmastime. This year we finally made it. This was not our first trip to NYC, but it was our first at Christmas. The trip was hard but amazing and worth the many difficulties. Truth be told, we are a special needs family, and when we are taken out of our routines, things can get dicey. We took the five of us and Grandma. New York City can be a very overwhelming place and was so much more crowded than I anticipated it would be when I was planning this trip. Our last trip to New York City was in the summer of 2016, and we were in a hotel on the west side of Midtown, which was much more residential and calm. This time we were in the heart of east Midtown very close to the Rockefeller Center, and it was much louder and absolutely packed with people. 

We drove to New York City. It is about an 11 hour drive, and we did it over two days. We arrived on day two at lunch time. Since we knew we couldn't get into our hotel or leave our vehicle for a few hours, we had made plans to visit The Metropolitan Museum of Art which has a parking lot. Wow! NYC traffic is intense. Hats off to my husband for driving in it. We got settled into the parking lot and visited the museum as planned. It was incredibly crowded. The artwork was inspiring and it was like visiting old friends that we have looked at so many times in books. You just can't replace standing in front of them in person. The Met is way too big to do in a day. We spent our time in the Impressionist, Old European Masters and Ancient Egypt sections. We did split up for a while, and the boys visited the armor section and Rebekah and I  visited the furniture sections. We looked for the bed we would sleep in if  we were Claudia in the book The Mixed up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. Grandma spent her time with the masters. 

Goya

Rebekah in 2016

Now in 2022 

Van Gogh

Monet

Monet

The crowds, hunger and our limits on being able to take in the beauty of the Met pushed us out into the Upper East Side to find dinner a bit before the Met closed. We left our car in The Met parking lot and headed for a pizza place several blocks away. The pizza was good. We then went back to our car and moved to our hotel on 52nd street. We stayed at the Hilton Garden. They messed up our room assignment and ended up giving us three king size rooms with one of them being complementary. It worked out. Some of us were done for the night and completely worn out. Rebekah, Elijah and I decided that we wanted to walk up to see the Saks Fifth Avenue light show and window displays. It was a short walk and we loved the show which runs every 10 minutes.  The window displays were animated. It was fascinating to see window displays that were so fancy and unique. Rebekah had just completed her college course in Visual Merchandising, which concentrated a great deal on window displays which are lacking in our little city. Needless to say, she drank the window displays all in!

We then moved on to the H&M clothing store, which Rebekah works at in our city and is Elijah's favorite clothing store. This one was five stories tall and had an H&M Home included. We shopped until 10:30 pm. We wrapped up the night with a hot chocolate and pastry at Paris Baguette, which became our stomping grounds for breakfast or dessert most days. 

Blessings, Dawn

The Nutcracker 2022

 Rebekah had a wonderful time performing in the Nutcracker this year. The experience, performance quality and overall organization of the studio was a vast improvement over last year. She got to perform eight shows in two different venues. I was so glad to see my girl happy again. Last year was such a nightmare in so many ways. We put on a brave face...but it was just ridiculous. We are all so glad that she has found a new dance home that is challenging and rewarding at the same time. 

Rebekah is hidden behind the young man.

Rebekah is front left/center.

Rebekah is a party parent that is sitting in the chair in a red dress to the left. 

Her quick changes were so fast that she wasn't able to get photos of all of her costumes.
This is her mouse king head (the rest of the costume isn't shown).

Her snow costume.

The young ladies are really nice at this studio, too. They accepted her with open arms. 

I am hoping that when more pictures are released to Instagram I will be able to find some more photos of her costumes. She was the Mouse King, Hot Chocolate, Flowers, Snow and a party parent. It was a great run. 

Merry Christmas, everyone, 

Dawn

Decking the Halls and Giving to Charities this Year

Our home is ready for Christmas. We always decorate as soon as the Thanksgiving dishes are washed. It is a tradition around here. I love Advent and want to be able to enjoy every drop of the season. Our local live tree stand stays open on Thanksgiving, and we were there to pick our tree right after Thanksgiving lunch. I love a real tree. Rebekah really wanted to do a pink theme this year when she saw tons of pink bobbles at the thrift store and the guys relented. We got our wrapping paper at T.J. Max. 

Yes, we are already done shopping and the gifts are wrapped and under the tree. I think in our worry that we wouldn't be organized this year (with my new job and two weeks of Nutcracker performances), we went into organized overdrive. However, it is nice to be done and just able to enjoy the season. We have a book and sock theme going for gifts this year. Just about everyone asked for books of some kind, and we are crazy sock people that just love fun socks. 

One of my real goals with our living room was to be able to move around the furniture very easily to accommodate different activities throughout the year. To make room for the tree, we reversed the sofas and  moved the game table to be in front of the book cases. We did not pull out all of the Christmas decor this year, because we just felt too busy. Plus, we also have a huge exciting event coming just days after Christmas that meant the house needs to be a bit streamlined this year. 

The Advent house has chocolate in it. 

My snowmen are scattered through my "pretty things" shelves this year. I really like them there and wonder why I never thought of it before. 

I didn't get a picture of the nativity this year because it is in the rec room, but it looks the same as every year. Most likely there are a few figures lying down at any given moment because of cats walking through it. Good thing the figures are made of resin so are hard to break. 

Our Charities this Season ~ 

We decided to make our charity giving more monetary this year instead of our typical volunteer and making charity boxes. We did decide to do a reverse Advent calendar this year...each day the kids put into the basket an item of food before getting their chocolate out of the Advent house. By Christmas Eve we will have 24 food items to drop off at the local food bank. 

In addition to that, Rebekah really wanted to do something for Ukraine and we decided to make a contribution to UNICEF.  Elijah really wanted to purchase an animal from Heifer International and not just any animal -- a water buffalo. The water buffalo was a bit out of our price range with everything else we wanted to do, so we decided to buy a few shares in a water buffalo. 

Lastly, we decided to send small checks to the first three local charities that reached out to us, which ended up all being animal shelters in a 50 mile radius.  

I hope to post another update next week with all things Nutcracker. We are deep in Nutcracker season and college finals week around here. So far, we are all healthy. I hope that holds.

Blessings, Dawn

Before Five in a Row ~ Jesse Bear ~ Preschool

 The little guy I nanny for is bright as a button. He isn't two until late January, but he is obviously ready for some preschool activities. So I pulled out my Before Five in a Row curriculum. We decided to start with Jesse Bear What Will You Wear? by Nancy White Carlstrom.  I made him a teddy bear out of cardboard with paper clothes to dress his very own bear. He loves to be read to, and we have read this book together about 30 times over the last two weeks --  I kid you not. We followed the BFIAR curriculum and played I Spy, talked about loving relationships and how to show love and identified patterns and shapes. 

We also talked about foreshadowing (what do you think is coming on the next page?) in the book. For example, when Mother bear comes out and is holding Jesse bear's bib, you know that it is time for Jesse bear to eat and that is then depicted on the next page. 

This curriculum includes lots of rhyming games. He loves rhyming with made up words and initiates rhyming games. We also learned Wee Willie Winkie, Hickory Dickory Dock and Row, Row, Row Your Boat. 

Lastly, we talked about how tidy Jesse Bear's room was and how it is more comfortable to live in a tidy home. We played the clean up game (which I had been teaching him for weeks). He is much more interested in having a tidy home like Jesse Bear and his parents say he is now initiating clean up time before transitions. 

What a delight to work with this little guy. We are starting Goodnight Moon next. 

November Catch-Up

Where did November go!? This month just sped by for our family. In fact, I really only took pictures three different times during the month and most of those are for my preschool post which should be up this week. All of the pictures below are from Rebekah's and my annual tour of the National Gingerbread Competition at the Grove Park Inn. Just the two of us went this year. The only times that worked for Rebekah were late in the evening.  We went on a Sunday after 7 pm and it was a perfect time. The little hot chocolate shop was still open, and we were able to tour the entire hotel without any crowds. It was perfect. All of the the gingerbread creations have to be 100% edible. 

The rest of the month was consumed with working, getting everyone where they needed to be, trying to balance a peaceful, tidy home with home-cooked meals and getting ready for December, which is going to be extremely busy, fun and festive,  I will have tons to post next month.

Our favorite one was this display. The mother bear has chased Santa up a tree,
 while the baby bears go through Santa's bag of goodies. 

The fairy's braided hair and the natural candy rocks and mushrooms
were a show stopper on this gingerbread display.

 

This one won the architectural award.

The Asheville skyline from the Grove Park Inn

The beginning of the month found Rosie (our almost 5 year old cat) having dental surgery. She has genetically weak teeth.  She did really well and they managed to save all of her teeth and fix her gums.  She has been a bit sweeter since she feels more comfortable. 

Thanksgiving was a lovely and peaceful day. We had seven sides, two pies and a roasted chicken. No one around here adores turkey--so why go through the ordeal of making it? We went out to the movies Thanksgiving night to see The Glass Onion. It was excellent. 

Blessings, Dawn

What a Wonderful October!

It was a very busy month, but we had a delightful October. Rebekah didn't have a single day off without some kind of out-of-the-home commitment (work, dance or school). We were a bit worried about squeezing in all of the celebrating that we generally do in October, but it all worked out. Rebekah had a lovely birthday. She chose a tart for her birthday "cake". We went out on the Blue Ridge Parkway and enjoyed the fall leaves. Rebekah also enjoyed a charcuterie board.

It was also my husband's birthday this month. We decorated the table and he had his traditional steak dinner with chocolate peanut butter cake. I must admit, I think his traditional birthday cake is my favorite each year. 

We squeezed in pumpkin carving during movie night. I was glad that Elijah decided to join in the fun. He has been a bit down lately...growing pains primarily. 

We (all but Elijah) went on the LaZoom haunted bus tour on Halloween night. It was fun, but a bit off color for our taste. We were glad to be out and about. There aren't tons of things to do as an adult for Halloween. We don't get trick or treaters in our neighborhood.

Rebekah wore a devil outfit to dance one day. She enjoyed getting to dress up. They also had spirit week at her work, but I never got any photos  of her very low key costumes. 

My nanny job is going great. I love it so much. My little guy is just a joy to work with. He is smart as can be and mostly easy going. He spent the entire month loving all things Halloween and fall. We had so much fun making leaf piles, jumping and kicking balls, taking long walks and generally drinking up the last of the warm weather. He loves to be read to, and we read at least a dozen books a day. I made him a ghost bowling set for Halloween day. He really preferred stacking them rather than knocking them down.  I also made him purple rice this month. He loves this activity so much, but we are struggling to keep the rice in the bucket. He understands the concept, but he loves to throw it and watch me sweep it up. I think it is time for a mini broom and dust pan for him. 

My blog going forward- I do intend to keep blogging, but I think it will remain a once a month catch-up post and I will be adding a preschool post each month. My little guy and I are getting ready to start some very gentle preschool curriculum. I will be drawing from Montessori, Charlotte Mason and the Before Five in a Row curricula. I am delighted I have found a way to continue teaching. This job really fell in my lap, and I am so grateful. 

Blessings, Dawn