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Since planning a birthday party the week before Christmas was insanity, I decided to forego a 50th birthday party in favour of a 50 Years and a Black Belt party in June (assuming I manage to survive that long *g*), and instead we took a family trip to New York City for a long weekend. (I've been trying to get us all to NYC for a couple of years, so it was a good excuse to finally do it.)

One thing both Ros and I wanted to do was go skating. Since the Rockefeller Centre rink is insanely expensive with a huge lineup, I suggested we try Bryant Park, which is free to skate but charges for rentals. (Ros brought her skates; I didn't bring mine.)

It was definitely an experience. The rink was crowded, the ice was choppy, and I have never been on a rink what that many people who had no idea how to skate. The ones who were pulling their way around the rink on the boards were okay, but the out-of-control dudes (and they were mostly dudes) pinwheeling around the rink nearly took both of us out multiple times. There were only a handful of skaters who knew what they were doing. Ros and I were taking bets on how many of those were Canadians. *g*

In spite of it all, it was a fun experience. Here we are on the rink.

And you can see the big Christmas tree behind us here.

One of the things I picked to do was see a performance of The Barber of Seville at the Metropolitan Opera. (In the time Before Ros, the Sweetie and I used to subscribe to the Canadian Opera Company.) The Met does a family version of The Barber that's only two hours long and sung in English, and also doesn't cost a million dollars. Ros gave it a thumbs up, so I have hopes I'll be able to talk her into seeing opera again.

The other performance thing we did was seeing Finding Neverland, with music by Mr. Gary Barlow of Take That. Seeing as Gary is my least favourite member of the band and his solo stuff tends to bore me rigid, I'd been swearing I wouldn't bother. But Gary performed a song from the show on Corden that was pretty good, and I realized we could try for half price tickets in Times Square.

The show ended up being lovely. Most of the music was quite good (except for a couple of the expected drippy ballads), the performances were all solid, and there was one theatrical effect at the end that was stunning. I would definitely recommend it, and trust me, that is a hard-won admission.

Another thing we did for Ros was breakfast at the American Girl store. The American Girl Cafe is designed to within an inch of its life with daisies everywhere, and they have little chairs so your doll can sit at the table with you. Ros brought her Julie doll.

We then spent several hours while Ros got her doll's hair done, picked out things to spend her Christmas money on, and picked out a present for her cousin. There was also drama when we realized she'd lost one of her doll's shoes, but the lost and found department came up trumps and found it. Disaster averted!

We also paid a visit to the big Toys R Us store in Times Square. Which is a good thing, as it's closing down in January.

The Sweetie enjoyed the Lego Hulk.