Love, Learn, Play: Christmas in New York City

Gosh, I sat down to write about our trip and just realized that it was nearly two weeks ago! Almost a year ago I had won a gift certificate for a night in a hotel in NYC. A couple of times Jon and I had talked about just the two of us flying out, but we could never justify the cost. We've become quite unaccustomed to spending even the smallest bit of money on ourselves. I'm glad we sat on it for so long because with the boys obsession with architecture overlapping with Christmas and the super cheap flights we found, we decided now was the perfect time. I have always dreamed of seeing the city at Christmas time and the boys were over the moon excited when we told them we were taking them to another one of their favorite Frank Lloyd Wright buildings- the Guggenheim in New York City!

We flew out of Detroit at 6:00am on Sunday morning. I'm not sure how we got blessed with such wonderful travelers, but the boys were bright eyed and bushy tailed at 4:30 am when we carried them out of bed and into the car. They love to fly and I love it even more now that we found some organic suckers for their ears that don't have corn syrup or food dye. We landed at 7:30am then took a bus and the subway into the city. We got off the subway at the south end of Central Park and when we walked up the stairs, the boys were staring straight at a perfectly unobstructed view of the Woolworth building. To be honest, I have no idea what the Woolworth building is or what its significance to the New York City skyline might be- but it is one of the boys favorite sky scrapers that they have been studying and they were simply spellbound. I apologize to the handful of people who tripped over us as we stood motionless at the top of the subway steps for some time. After standing there in the street with our jaws open for awhile, we walked towards our hotel and stopped at Starbucks so the boys could eat their breakfast and Jon and I could finally get our morning coffee. A few hard boiled eggs and lattes later, we were back on our feet. We dropped our bags off at our hotel and jumped on a bus to the Upper East Side. When the boys saw where we got off, they were ecstatic! No- we weren't at FAO Schwarz, we were standing outside of Frank Lloyd Wright's Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum!!! It is one of the boys' favorite Frank Lloyd Wright pieces and they were finally seeing it in person. We don't buy the boys a lot of toys. They don't have their own tablets or eReaders or electronics of any sort. Jon and I don't have smartphones and our bed is a mattress on a box spring. After all the bills are paid, we use what very little we have left to give the boys experiences- and its hard not to indulge their interests when their interests include things like architecture and art. So there we were, experiencing one of Frank Lloyd Wright's greatest designs and structures together as a family and its times like those that make every difficult moment of parenting preschoolers all worth it. And then we went inside! I'll be honest, the art felt like a crock of pooey. Jon and I tried, we really did. But we just didn't get it. I understand that art is a personal expression and I get that part, but I can't for the life of me figure out why one person's personal expression (that is really nothing more than scribbles) is worth millions while another person's personal expression is worth nothing. The boys were into some of the pieces though, which was really neat to see. But just being in the building and walking down the seven story winding ramp was incredible in and of itself. And when we found the little library inside, the boys were in heaven. The librarian looked a bit nervous when we walked in. The boys tend to do that to people at times :) But when we asked where the Frank Lloyd Wright books were, grabbed a few, and settled in on the big comfy couch where the boys excitedly flipped through the pages shouting out all of the houses and buildings they have seen, she was nothing short of amazed. She just couldn't believe that the boys were so passionate and knowledgeable about architecture. An hour later when we left, she thanked the boys for being the most enthusiastic visitors to her library that she had had all week long! My heart smiled.

After the museum, we walked nearly a mile or so to a pizza place Jon had seen on the Food Network. This was the first trip that we have ever taken with the boys sans strollers. There were definitely moments that I wished we had brought them- I think we did less walking at Disneyland than we had done in a half of a day in NYC! But the boys were troopers and we walked on! Back at our hotel, we hung out in the second floor lounge until our room was ready. We stayed at Hotel Elysee- by far the nicest hotel we have ever or will ever stay at in our lives!! It was just beautiful! We enjoyed fresh brewed coffee and fresh fruit and pastries while we waited for our room and let the boys just relax for a bit. When our room was ready- a three bedroom suite with a bottle of wine and box of chocolates waiting for us- we only stopped in long enough to get ready to go out again! This time we walked to Rockefeller Center- about a half a mile from our hotel. The boys are madly in love with the Atlas statue and Prometheus statue at Rockefeller Center. We saw Atlas first and they were just in awe! It was so amazing to see their faces light up when they saw some of their favorite things that they had previously only seen in books. But to see their faces light up when they first saw that Christmas tree was worth a million dollars! And then we went into the Lego store and their excitement nearly bubbled over! After letting them each fill a tub with Lego pieces, we went out to watch the ice skaters for a bit and then walked another half a mile or so to Times Square. The boys were mesmerized by the lights- what a sight to see! We walked the mile back to our hotel where the boys spent nearly an hour playing with their new Legos- building everything they had seen in the city despite having a limited type of bricks. Their creativity never ceases to amaze us.

On Monday morning we had a quick meeting and then a surprise for the boys (and Jon!). We had tickets to see the Radio City Christmas Spectacular! While I was somewhat afraid that the boys wouldn't last through the show, I figured that you can't do Christmas time in New York City without seeing the Rockettes, right?! Thanks to my mom and dad, we were able to make it happen. Despite having the cheapest tickets one can buy, our seats were fantastic- they were the first row in the third mezzanine so we had an unobstructed view and some room for the boys to move around a bit. They absolutely positively loved the show! They loved the tap dancing and the boy dancers- "Just like us mama!" I think spent just as much time watching their little faces as I did watching the show- both were truly spectacular to see. After that, we had some lunch and then had to rush to the airport- less than 36 hours after we had landed in the city! A subway train and a bus ride later, we made it just in time to catch our plane. It was a whirlwind of a trip- we must have walked four or five miles and we managed to cover most of midtown Manhattan including most all of the Christmas highlights! The boys got to go into two of their favorite buildings, see their two favorite statues, and see many of their favorite sky scrapers from a far. I couldn't have asked for a better Christmas present :)

Santa in the city!