Year End Wrap Up

I spent December singing, traveling, taking antibiotics and cooking. I was supposed to start the month off with a visit to Orlando for the opening of Ginger. Instead, I spent the weekend on the sofa trying to fight off the snot of death.

The next weekend was the marathon church music weekend, and I spent all weekend singing. The next week is when the real fun began.

I flew out of Atlanta on Thursday to meet my sister and nephew in New York--or "Yew York City!" as Will would say. He was an absolute trooper, and I remain amazed at how well a 2 year old lasted in the city. Highlights included:

• Having him run up to me when I walked in the hotel. Made my 20 minute wait for a cab outside of Penn Station in the rain worth it.
• Seeing one of my sister's best friends growing up in the lobby of our hotel. Our hometown only has 30,000 residents and we ran into one of our favorite people in the lobby of the largest hotel in New York.
• The great service we had at dinner our first night--and the delicious tiramisu.
• Just taking a minute to absorb the fact that I was standing at Rockefeller Center watching the ice skaters with my nephew two weeks before Christmas and enjoying his excitement.
• Realizing how empathetic he is after we continued to ask me about the lady we saw fall all day long.
• Watching Will climb right up on Santa's lap and continue to ask him for a "twee."
• Having him ask me over and over again "Sissy, what happen to my nose?" It was so cold, his nose was numb.
• After I taught him how to hail a cab, he would periodically hold both bemittened hands up and say, "I need taxi car."
• All the crazy looks we got (even in New York) while transporting him in the backpack.
• Truffled Egg Toast
• Meeting the very nice lady on the Staten Island Ferry who then taught us how to take the bus instead of the subway.
• Babbo
• Having Will charm everyone on the elevator at Top of the Rock; hearing them all say, "aw" when he walked into the glass barrier once we got off the elevator--while I died laughing.
• Having him ask to go "ni-ni with my Sissy" every night we were there.
• After a long day of going, going, going asking him if he wanted to go night-night. "No." Do you want to go to a museum? "No." What do you want to do? "I wanna pway." So, we got out and "pwayed" in Central Park.

It was a great trip. I would post some pictures, but my sister won't e-mail them to me.

After that, I wrapped up at work and then headed to Nashville for the holiday. We were all together for 4 days, and my grandparents continue to be troopers. Especially my grandmother. She's a little frightened of escalators these days, but she still managed to recover after initiating a ride by doing the splits. She's pretty phenomenal.

"We" cooked breakfast for a shelter Christmas Eve morning. I ended up cooking two casseroles to simplify things. Once Will is a little older, this will be even more meaningful.

The first words out of his mouth Christmas morning were, "Thank you, Santa Claus." It doesn't get much better than that.

Unfortunately, in addition to my beautiful new luggage (the green one), I came home with strep throat. Just like the good ole days. Luckily, I haven't celebrated New Year's in several years, so the strep didn't really put a damper on my plans. I felt well enough to enjoy some champagne and sushi at home. I didn't really make any resolutions, just trying to be more mindful of lots of things in my life. And to turn off the TV and computer a little more.

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