Christmas in the City

For a couple of folks that just moved out to the burbs, we sure have been visiting the city a lot more than we normally do. Without traffic, it takes about the same about of time now to get into downtown Boston as it did from our previous Boston address. Weird, right? In any case, it's a good thing we have a pretty direct route in because we used it several times last weekend - 3 times in 3 days as a matter of fact.

Trip #1 was taken Friday evening to see a performance. This particular performance has been playing for about 10 years in the area and I've always wanted to go. Since Mike and I likely won't be able to have too many nights to ourselves in the near future, I convinced him to take me to this show for date night. The show? Well, it's a take off of a classic - the Urban Nutcracker! The show is produced by BalletRox, which is an inner city dance studio. In addition to some of the classic music and ballet moves of the original Nutcracker, there are also some jazzed up versions of the music and lots of other different forms of dance including tap, hip hop and swing. While the chairs were not the most comfortable in my condition and the auditorium too hot, Mike and I really enjoyed the show. Since almost 50% of the audience was kids, I felt a little guilty for leaving Dylan at home with our (new) sitter, but there is no way he would have been able to sit still for that amount of time that long past his bed time.

Trip #2 to the city happened Saturday night for my company's Holiday party. It took place at the Museum of Science. We all got dressed up and went to the event not knowing how long Dylan would last. It started at 6:00pm and Dylan usually heads to bed at 7:30. He doesn't do very well staying up later than that. Just like most days as a parent, you have to go with the flow. When we first go there, he was excited to check out the natural history displays that were just outside the event room.

Just a bit later though, when standing in line to see Santa, a tired boy wanted to be held and rest his head on my shoulder.

This time, being tired when seeing Santa worked to our advantage. I talked to him (again) while we were in line about what he would talk to Santa about. This time, he wanted to tell Santa that he wanted toys for Christmas. I set him down when it was his turn and he walked towards Santa with open arms ready for a hug and a sit on his lap. When Santa asked him what he wanted for Christmas, Dylan looked at what was in Santa's hand and told him "a candy cane!" Well Santa, I guess your job is done. That candy cane was all he needed.

And we even managed to get a sort of smile for the picture!

Luckily, the candy cane not only entertained him while Mike and I had a chance to grab some dinner (Dylan sucked on the candy cane for his meal), the sugar gave him a little boost. He went out to visit the animals again and even cooperated long enough for us to quickly walk through the Pompeii exhibit that was there. He especially liked the part of the special exhibit that had a display of about 30 skeletons. Does his fascination with skeletons make him morbid or just super cute that he is still excited about Halloween stuff? I'm going with cute.

After our very quick trip through the Pompeii exhibit, we headed home. Made it until about 8:30. Not too bad. Of course, I don't feel like I got to talk to and enjoy any of my coworkers, but that's how parties go when you're there with a child.

Trip #3 happened on Sunday. We hadn't seen our friends Tamara and Ross for a while so we arranged to meet downtown for some holiday fun for their little girl Elsa and our Dylan. There was an outdoor holiday shop we thought we could check out, take in some of the downtown holiday decorations and also pop by the Boston Common to see folks ice skate on the Frog Pond.

We've had such mild weather for this time of year that we aren't quite accustomed to what kind of weather is more appropriate in this season....ie COLD! Last weekend Jack Frost finally arrived and Sunday was a very frigid day that none of us were quite prepared for. So, after listening to the singers outside of Macy's, strolling through the heated tent of the market and checking out a few decorations, Tamara, Ross and Elsa had had enough and headed for warmth. Mike, Dylan and I continued to the park and, rather briefly, watched the skaters, admired the town's Christmas tree and headed back to our car where we blasted the heater. Brrrrr!

Holiday Market and Street Vendors

Dylan Saying Hi to Elsa

The Tree on the Ledge of Macy's

Almost to the Park (They turned back just after this.)

The Frogs

Watching the Ice Skaters

Skating on the Pond

Admiring the Window Displays One Last Time on the Way Back to the Car

Our friends, after stopping to get some warm beverages at Dunkin Donuts, met us back at the house where we enjoyed a pizza night and each other's company. It had been a very eventful weekend and I was exhausted! Thank goodness I had taken off on Monday and would have some time to recuperate from all the excitement.