Elizabeth: Christmas in NYC

So-this is the third time I'm trying this blog but this time I'm in Firefox instead of IE-I hope that makes a difference.

My mom and I went to NY for a couple days last weekend; we left Philly early Friday morning and arrived back Saturday about 6 PM-a busy 36 hours. My mom grew up in NY and is the one who introduced me to its charms; the theater and shopping in Midtown, Central Park, and the museums. (I discovered downtown on my own and took her there-in her day Soho was not a place you wanted to go!). We've traveled to NY together many times over the years, but in the past couple years we started a new tradition-the Christmastime visit. Manhattan has that extra special something around Christmas, and I hope to bring some of that right here to Myspace.
First, the Christmas tree at 30th Street Station

We arrived in NY about 10AM, and after dropping our bags at the hotel, we hit the street to start the day. One of those quirky store windows I'm always on the lookout for

We headed towards the Morgan Library to see an exhibit of original drawings from the Babar books and have lunch in their atrium. We also stopped in their museum shop to look for a mini-calendar for Mom's kitchen. (No luck, and we were unsuccessful in the other museum shops we went in. Luckily I was able to find about 15 to choose from on the internet when I got home-one of these days we'll take the sheets off that beautiful Apple she got for Christmas last year.)On the way there we stopped at Lord and Taylor to check out the windows; the place was beautiful, inside and out.

Next stop-MOMA-for the Van Gogh at Night exhibit and a little early dinner. Unfortunately the timed tickets for the Van Gogh were sold out for the evening; Friday night is free and the place was mobbed. We did stumble on this amazing littleexhibit of 20's movie posters that we spent some time looking at-I love to find those little gems, and this one sparkled!
We went to dinner at the Modern Bar Room, which is the casual side of the Modern restaurant; the same great food for less money, and the Friday night happy hour scene is always interesting.

By the time we finished dinner we were done in more ways than one-it was time to officially check in at the hotel and relax in the room.
Some shots on the way back to the hotel

The next morning we slept in a bit and had breakfast (eggs benedict with smoked salmon-yum) at the hotel restaurant Serafina. The idea was to get started on the day at MOMA for the Van Gogh exhibit we missed the night before, so after breakfast we headed out again.

A shot of mom on the stairs at MOMA-I'm so glad I asked her to pose for this!

The Van Gogh exhibit was incredible, unfortunately no pictures were allowed, so you'll just have to go yourself, or you can just follow the link and visit it online-I promise you won't regret it.

After we left MOMA we hopped in a cab uptown to the Met-so much art, so little time. We had to prioritize the exhibits; we'd start with the ones closing first. That meant the Morandi, which is already gone-he was not my cup of tea but mom enjoyed it. Next we went to the enormousexhibit commemorating Philippe de Montebello, who is retiring after many years at the museum. The exhibit displayed some highlights of the acquisitions during his tenure there.