The Trahan's Take New York

Every December, I travel to New York for a technical conference. And, every year, Mike and I talk about having him and Mikie come into the city to meet me. Knowing Mikie is five and in school, I feel like I am on borrowed time when it comes to believing in Santa. Before the mystery of Christmas loses some of its luster, I figured we should go into Christmas to see THE Christmas tree.

My conference was from Wednesday through Friday. So, Friday afternoon, Mike and the kids drove in to meet me. . . As I should have suspected, both of them were more smitten with the hotel room than the tree. Hannah had plenty of things to investigate. And, Mikie had a queen size bed in his own room with his own TV (which he was quick to settle down in and decided he needed a similar set up at home).

Nibbles was in her glory. For the child who lives to people watch, New York City was like heaven. Here's a picture of her watching traffic and pedestrians from the window of the Manhattan Diner. Her cute little face (especially in that hat) stopped a lot of people as well. . . And, since our sole purpose was to do touristy things (and it was too cold to go to Central Park like I originally intended), we headed to Fifth Avenue to F.A.O. Schwarz. Our trip served two purposes. First, entertain Mikie. Second, give mom the opportunity to make her own Muppet. Yes, I am a HUGE Muppet fan. So, when I found out a year ago that you could create your own Muppet, I had to have one. Pregnancy prevented me from completing my mission last year. And, mail ordering your own Muppet just isn't the same. So, the first thing Nibbles and I did (after admiring the display of Steiff animals) was visit the What Not Workshop to make Mom a Muppet.

As you can see from the photos and video, Mikie enjoyed F.A.O. Schwarz too. I think he was slightly disappointed to find out that they didn't sell the life-size Lego Chewbacca (mom and dad are incredibly grateful since we can't imagine assembling something that consists of so many of only two different colors of Legos. . . )He did add a significant amount of other items (both Lego and non-Lego) to his Christmas list. And, he danced on the Big piano. . .

While Mikie was amusing, he was a far cry from Tom Hanks. However, right after his performance ended, we caught the official F.A.O. "piano dancers". UNBELIEVABLE. They performed Chopsticks. . . Heart and Soul. . . Happy Birthday. They even danced Tocata and Fugue. The video camera died right before Tocata and Fugue, but I found video footage CBS did of the same performance so you can experience it for yourself.

After that, the day went downhill. We walked over to Time Square to stop at the Toys 'R Us. We probably would have been much happier had we just left the city. In hindsight, why we thought it was a good idea to take two kids to the most tourist-ridden spot in New York on a Saturday afternoon two weeks before Christmas is beyond me. Momentary insanity? Lunch was crowded and overpriced (although completely expected). Toys 'R Us was mobbed with people who somehow thought I should not have brought an infant to a toy store. Yeah, I'm definitely not the target demographic. That infant forces me to spend more money at that franchise than I care to tally up. In my opinion, they should have closed the store and provided Hannah her own personal escort. For what it's worth, the most valued customer slept through the entire experience. So, she missed me arguing with able-bodied patrons who attempted to trample her in her stroller and occupied the elevator that was supposed to be reserved for strollers and wheel chairs only.

So, with very little cheer left in our hearts, we went back to our parking garage, paid the attendant $40 (yeah, for approximately five hours of parking), and fought our way back out of the city.Happy Holidays.

Love, The Trahans