As a very, very, very special surprise, Ryan and I took Vivienne to New York City to see Mary Poppins, the musical. In a word, it was outstanding! Vivienne was up on her knees, laughing, and wondering the whole time.

In one day’s time, we drove to NJ, hopped on a train to Penn Station, stopped into Macy’s and enjoyed the Miracle on 34th Street, where…

…WE HEARD “MERRY CHRISTMAS!” over and over and over again! It was delightful!

Of course, the elves’ focus was the Santa aspect of the holiday, but Ryan and I soaked in the sheer existence of those beautiful words: “Merry Christmas!”

This is the youngest Santa Claus I’ve ever seen. Even though he weighed in at 25 years or younger, he was friendly and smiled pretty. Needless to say, he’s the second Santa Claus to find out that what Vivienne REALLY wants for Christmas is…. (drum roll please)… a jump rope. Both Santa Clauses have raised their eyebrows at her simple request and have recited Santa’s big line: “I’ll do my best,” but what they seemed to say was, “Boy, if your mom and dad don’t deliver on that one, maybe we’ll have to squeeze down your chimney ourselves!”

We clapped and clapped for a musical that was superbly acted, sung, and danced. Not to mention, sat jaw-dropped at the moral of the entire play: that Mrs. Banks realizes the beauty of being “Mrs. Banks” and chooses to honor her role as a wife and mother above all else (a fairly stark difference from the cinematic Mrs. Banks).

With a few extra hours of daylight, we walked over to Rockefellar Center to see the tree, the newly zambonied ice rink, and Anthropologie (my favorite store of all time).

See that Minnie Mouse with “I love you” embroidered onto her tongue? She was just one of many costumed characters lining Broadway as we walked down to Rockefeller Center. Winnie the Pooh, Sponge Bob, 2 Elmos, etc. embraced happy children. Being a geniune “mascot-lover”, Vivienne ran up to say hello. After we snapped this photo, Minnie Mouse muffled, “Want Alla?” Thinking she was offering to pose in a picture with all three of us, I smiled and declined, saying, “Oh, no thank you! That was great!” As we walked away, Ryan asked, “Did you understand what she wanted?”

“What do you mean?”

“She wanted one dollar.”

“OH! Shoot. One dollar!” Suddenly it all made sense. But we didn’t see her again. And I feel awful. If you happen to run into her someday, please give her a dollar on my behalf. Just look for the embroidered tongue, okay?

Then it was back to the train, back to the car, and back home…