Radio City Christmas Spectacular

During a momentary lapse of reason I thought it would be a good idea to take the girls to New York City to see the Rockettes and the Radio City Christmas Spectacular. I was very lucky to be able to get tickets through a former co-worker whose DD is a Rockette. Our seats were center stage about 30 rows back. You might think that the seats suck being so far back, but they are really great because we are far enough back that we can see all of the stage without craning our necks.

The girls and I took the train up from Princeton; it took about an hour, but took years off my life. I had gotten up early and hoped to catch one of the first off peak trains of the day. However, everything seemed to conspire against me. First, my parents were having their carpets deep cleaned that day, so I spent the early morning moving our stuff off the carpets, and helping my father move furniture. Since my mom had to work and dad was going to be home to meet the carpet cleaners (who I used to clean my carpets at my home in PA and I highly recommend), they let me take the car to the train station and keep it there all day. Sounded like a great idea. However, this area is chock full of commuters, and the local train stations cannot handle the capacity for commuter parking. Parking permit wait lists span YEARS. So I cruised the daily parking lots and all of them were full. There were spots in the commuter permit parking lots, but I didn't want to chance not having a car at the end of the day. How would I explain that to my parents? That I had gotten their car towed... Nope. I finally found parking on an access street to the station, and it was probably the last legal spot for miles.

My troubles really began when we started walking to the station. S, my middle DD, was not happy about being rushed and kept crying and wailing. As we slowly crept to the station, I watched the last train we could take and not be late arrive and depart the station. So now we were going to be on a train getting us in with only 20 minutes to curtain. Once we were on the train, I got to enjoy the girls fighting over who got to stand near the window and who got to look out the window while kneeling on the seat. Great fun. I also spotted a former co-worker from our Finance department (and fellow working mom of a toddler) a few rows ahead; unfortunately, when we got off the train I lost sight of her and never got to say hi.

We hot-footed it out of Penn Station and once I had my bearings, I tried to hurry us up 16 blocks to get to Radio City. Of course, I had one DD complaining that her knees hurt and she couldn't walk fast, and the other was crying and wailing and not enjoying the hustling. I finally found a cab a few blocks away from RCMH and we hopped in because I knew that would be faster than we could do on foot. It was great and I think B enjoyed the cab ride.

Unfortunately we arrived after curtains went up. We missed seeing the 3D movie that starts the show. Santa flies in on his sleigh and passes by all the NYC landmarks -- the Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center, St. Patrick's Cathedral, and lastly, Radio City Music Hall. The ushers don't allow anyone to go down the aisles while the Rockettes are on, so we watched the latter part of the new opening number from the top of the aisle. As soon as the number ended, we hurried to our seats. B was very excited and sat right down, with S between us and I was on the aisle. Shortly thereafter, a trio sat in the empty seats in front of us, and the girls had a harder time seeing the show. B knelt on the seat, only to be chided (and I was scolded) by the friendly (NOT!) people behind us. S kept going from seat to seat, and was more interested in playing with the Playbill than watch the show. Needless to say, I was mortified by their behavior. Neither of them sat very still. The very kind and patient man sitting in the fourth seat even offered to let them sit on his folded coat on their seat to see if that would improve the view. B tried it and it worked for a little while. He even offered to let her stand in between him and his companion because there was no one in front of them; the view was better. I declined only because I know she can't sit or stand still and I didn't want to ruin the show for them any more than we already had.

I kept praying for the intermission, and realized when they did the living Nativity that I was mistaken; there was no intermission. At least the end was in sight. When the lights went up, I apologized profusely to the nice man next to us, and thanked him for being so patient and good with the girls. After the theater cleared we headed for the side of the stage and asked an usher where we needed to go to meet my co-worker's DD. I told them that that was the location we were told to go to in order to meet "M". The usher said that she had no list of guests and then radioed backstage. M met us, and sweet thing that she is, she gave the girls and me huge hugs. While we chatted, the usher got our visitor passes. We got to see some neat things backstage. The girls got to pet one of the camels, and they got to wear the red cheeks from the Wooden Soldier routine. M told us that since last year, she hadn't seen the stagehand who allowed B to drive one of the elves' cars last year. But today she saw him and he happened to ask if she had any guests with kids coming to the show. What timing! So we met him and the girls got to drive once around the stage in a mini-Escalade. And they got to sit in Santa's sleigh with M too. Once again it was a fabulous back stage adventure. M is a total doll; a real sweetheart. I just love that girl.

However, the best part of our trip, the highlight of the entire thing for B, was not going to see the show. Nor was it a personal backstage tour. Not even flying up in First Class. No. It was the KitKat that M gave each of the girls backstage.

So perhaps I won't bother next year...