New York!

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New York, New York!
It was a fun trip! The basic ideas were to (a) see the Rockettes, and the 75th Anniversary Gala at Radio City Music Hall and (b) shop. We got to watch movies (and knit!) during the trip - by the time we got home (at 2am on Sunday), we'd seen not only New York City, but "Christmas with the Kranks", "Deck the Halls", and "Invincible". The first two were fun, with a lot more heart than I expected from the commercials, and the third is one of my favorite movies, period.

Once we actually arrived in the city (four hours to get to New York City, one hour to get from the Tunnel to 50th & Madison!!), we snuck in a trip to see the orignial Winnie-the-Pooh and friends....

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the Real Deal!and Mary Poppins' umbrella (and other things donated by the author).

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The other stuff in the case is IN the original illustrations/descriptions in the story!
We met Santa Claus

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[NeatoStuff/SantaMe2007.jpg] Is it just me, or does Santa look skeptical?

... and if you've ever been on the streets around 30 Rock this time of year, you realize how long we waited to snap pics with no other people in the way!! OMG, the sidwalks were SOOOOO crowded! We shopped for a bit - mostly in the subbasements at 30 Rock, where it was warm - and saw a few odd things, like the Grinch and Elmo without their heads on:

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Elmo is a cute Hispanic guy with dreadlocks - who knew?
Shopping somehow kept coming back to the NBC store and 30 Rock. Cool art & architecture outside; cutouts of famous people inside.

[NeatoStuff/Atlas30Rock.jpg] Atlas in front of 30 Rock

[NeatoStuff/StPatricks2007.jpg] St. Patrick's Cathedral. Amazing!

[NeatoStuff/MomMattLauer.jpg] Mom & Matt Lauer

[NeatoStuff/CJMadMoneyguy.jpg] Me & Jim Cramer

Then, of course, we got to the show! There was a 3-D portion (Santa flies over the crowd!), it SNOWED inside the theater, the music was wonderful, the dancing AMAZING... if you get a chance to go to New York, this is definitely worth the price of admission. Just a fun, magical time - and for an hour and a half show, it just zoomed by!

[NeatoStuff/RadioCitySpectacular.jpg] Santa & his 36 Dancing Reindeer!

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[NeatoStuff/RadioCitySpectacular4.jpg] Infinite dancing Santas (to explain how he can be so many places at once!)

[NeatoStuff/RadioCitySpectacular5.jpg] The Living Nativity - just WOW.

Then back outside, to see the Big Tree all lit up. This photo just doesn't BEGIN to tell you how tall this thing is. I'm over a block away from it, and it STILL looks huge!

[NeatoStuff/RockefellerCenterTree2007.jpg] The Tree from TV!

[NeatoStuff/LightShowSnowflakes2007.jpg] Snowflake lightshow set to music!

All in all, a fun day out, and yes - I *did* get to knit the whole bus ride!