Dribbles, Nibbles & Scribbles: Santa

Sunday we took MiniM.E. on our second annual trip to New York City. We went last year when she was just two months old and our first trip was so awesome, we decided it had to become a family tradition.

Last year we went with our friends M & G, but since they're expecting their first baby at Christmas, it was cutting it too close to make the trip. We took my parents instead, which was pretty exciting since it had been years since either of them visited NYC.

This year we drove to Beacon station and took the train in.

MiniM.E. seemed to enjoy the train...

until she fell asleep.

We arrived at Grand Central Station just before lunch. MiniM.E. was in awe of all the people and lights and noise. We visited the Christmas Market in the station before venturing out to the streets of the city.

taking it all in

The streets of New York:

At first, MiniM.E didn't seem too thrilled (probably because of the necessity of a hat and mittens), but less than five minutes from the station she was her excitable self again.

(Probably because she saw this:)

The entire purpose of the New York trip for me was for MiniM.E. to sit on Santa's lap at the Plaza Hotel. I have never seen a better Santa than the one there, and I'm pretty sure he's the real deal. So even though there are lots of Santa's helpers at malls close by, and even in downtown Saratoga, I want to take MiniM.E. to NYC every year to see the real Santa at the Plaza Hotel (where, after getting ready for Christmas ALL YEAR, he must need a bit of a break before the big day).

Here is the photo we got last year.

See? The Santa. And, how cute is MiniM.E.?

Now, I realize that a one-year-old is much different than a tiny baby and even though I knew she would scream and cry, I still wanted my yearly picture.

So... our first stop, while MiniM.E. was still fresh, was the Plaza Hotel.

BUT, of course, something would go wrong to upset the trip. *Insert huge, long Santa photo debacle here.* Long story short, their camera stopped working and they told us to come back in an hour, which, of course, would interfere with the nap MiniM.E. desperately needed. Yet, the photo being the most important task of the day, we returned an hour later, only to be told they needed another hour. After much arguing and pleading, we finally convinced the staff to find Santa (who was on his break) so we could take a photo using OUR camera. I would need an entire post to write about my frustration with the Santa staff, but we got the picture, so I'm happy.

After finding out we needed to come back, we went next door to FAO Schwarz. The toy store was most definitely MiniM.E.'s favorite part of the trip. First we explored.

Climbing on the giant puppies

Looking at the chirping birds

Playing with the super expensive Steiff bears... YIKES!

Then we found the story area and MiniM.E. spent almost an hour playing with the toys

and reading stories.

The highlight of the toy store was the Big Piano.

MiniM.E. loved it so much that as soon as she got off she immediately signed and said "more", and most amazingly, added "mi-an-o". Seriously? The words this kid learns without us even teaching her...

So for the rest of the day she continuously chanted "mi-an-o" over and over.

We went back to see Santa. We still had to wait a while, but we finally got to see him. At first MiniM.E. just wanted to play with the tree. Once we put her in his lap, she started out alright, admiring the fuzzy coat, but soon didn't seem quite so happy. Her concern turned into outright terror pretty quickly. Luckily, I snapped one good photo before everything went downhill. I do kind of like this one though.