My Mother-in-Law

 Rhonda, Bryan's mom, came to town this weekend. What an blast we had. She was the perfect visitor as she had no expectations and loved everything we did. And, we did a ton. Think I wore her out a bit with all the walking I tried to fit in! I love her innocence about city life. As she was coming in from the airport, I was trying to ask which direction she was coming from and where she was-by asking about the street she was on. The grid the city is built on is very nice and makes navigating tolerable. Yet she had a hard time figuring out the layout of things. After a few questions about where we were in the city, we finally realized that north/south/east/west are not directions she uses. She understands landmarks and left and right because where she is from that's the only way to survive (needless to say-i get lost very easily there!!)

Friday night when she got in, I thought we'd explore my part of town. We ate tapas across the street, and I made her try quail and veal for the first time. We then went over to Serendipity to try out the frozen hot chocolate. During our 2 hr wait-literally, we went to Dylan's candy bar and looked around, went into Bloomingdale's, looked at store fronts and wondered. 

When they were ready for us back at Serendipity we went back. We were seated upstairs. The decor of this place is quaint, old and eccentric. Rhonda loved the holiday decorations. I love this pic of her, her smile says it all! And, the drinks really are that big-but so worth every calorie. Hard to explain how they taste, but the closest we could come up with was that they taste like hot chocolate in a daiquiri form. What a great treat!

Saturday we were up very early. We took J for a little stroll around the dog park and then off to my work and central park. It was so fun to walk through the park with her as every little detail was important. We climbed a rock to see what all the commotion on the other side was, as we thought we even heard Christmas music. Sure enough, we did. We found the ice skating rink!

After the park, we wondered around midtown, checking out FAO and all the store fronts along Madison and 5th. I love the Bergdorf windows-they have all the men's clothes on people bodies with gorgeous animal heads. All the women's are normal. Sounds strange, but it is really amazing to see the creativity!

We then headed to Union Square (on the subway for the first time!) to see the weekend market. To my surprise, they had the usual market stuff, plus more -tons of artist selling their Christmas wears. We saw carolers in one section. We also saw these wooden reindeer that were so cute. A dad and son were making these. As we walked past, Rhonda said she actually made some exactly like that several years ago and gave them as gifts. My progressive mother-in-law