Holiday Panto and NYC, December 2017

The school free players pulled off a Sherlock Holmes panto! And then the Fantastics went to the Big Apple for an overnight trip! Hooray for December!

The cast and most of crew, Rhoda Dent the Mouse and Watson:

This rip-roaring panto included a cheese-infatuated pirate called Cap. Regina DeFromage played by Fiercely, a large mouse, a chorus of pirates (who also served as swordfish, among other things) including the twins, Cleverly as Watson’s fiance Mary, political jokes, a Messy Scene, a rhyming villain Moriarty, and our hero, that character of short attention span and long deerstalker cap, Sherlock Holmes.

Moriarty camouflaged to look like a chair, panto brochure drawings by the actors, swordfish:

What’s a panto? Here’s my brief description and someone else’s longer  one. We’ve done several of these British holiday traditional theater productions and they are so much fun. 

Then we went to NYC.

We helped Cleverly escape from school early and piled into the wagon, bound for a rental apartment in Brooklyn.  We stayed near the Myrtle Wycoff station in an Hispanic neighborhood. I love renting an apartment rather than staying in a hotel-which we couldn’t afford anyway- because you can pretend to live there and don’t feel so much a tourist. We bought tamales on the street and churros ($2 for six!!!) on the subway. I chatted with locals in Spanish. We hopped on the subway and went to Grand Central Station, which is gorgeous.

Subway churros and Grand Central Station:

We saw the Saks Fifth Avenue light show on the building and also the holiday window displays, which never disappoint.

We stopped by 30 Rockefeller and had an amazing dinner at a Thai restaurant called Sticky Rice near Chinatown. Then it was back to the apartment in the subway, which isn’t underground on this route, rather we had a great view of the city as we crossed the bridge back to Brooklyn. We watched some TV and I took a luxurious bath back at the apartment.

The next morning we had breakfast from the local vendors and lounged a little in our comfy place, then packed up the car to drive back to the City. Mr. Fantastic had tickets to an undisclosed event he has been telling us about, or really not telling us about, for a while. It turned out to be the Downtown Abbey exhibition! Here we are at the bell board:

We had gotten hooked on DA while we were traveling after we had found the series on DVD in China somewhere. It helped to have something we all enjoyed during long train rides and the like. And now we were able to see some of the sets and costumes, which were meticulously designed, museum quality really, in person. 

The dining room, below:

The twins got a little bored, but we enjoyed it overall. Then we had lunch, falafel from food truck, on a bench in Central Park. We found a playground nearby. It was warm enough to enjoy being outside.

We caught a few more window displays, including my favorite, Bergdorf Goodman, and walked around a bit more. Then we drove back home, stopping en route to get Cleverly an outfit she needed for her school choir performance that night, to which we barely made it on time. School gets in the way for us homeschoolers! But the trip was wonderful! Two more shots from New York:

Thanksgiving, bikes and dim sum and veggie turkey, 2017

Thanksgiving! Or, as I like to think of it, The Best Day to Bike in Philly! There is an early morning parade, finished way before noon depending where you stand to watch, and biking is the best way to get there for us. And the biking is fantastic. It’s usually a cold, sunny, dry day and there is almost no traffic. 

The kids have gotten better at biking and our destination is clear. Once we reach the Art Museum, which is the end of the parade route, we can bike towards the start of the route and stop anywhere we like. Too crowded? We move on. Marching band performance? We can stop and watch. 
We met Mr. Fantastic’s brother and family and went to Chinatown, the best place to hang out on holidays because everything is open for business. The 10 of us had an amazing dinner, then went our separate ways to cook and eat a second, more traditional dinner. Well, if you consider tofurkey traditional, since we are all mostly vegetarian. 

This year as we arrived at the parade The Wheelmen caught my eye. They are the local representatives of the national organization for antique bike enthusiasts. One of them (that guy on the far right above) made my day by allowing me to get up on the Ordinary, also known as the Penny Farthing, also known as That Old Bicycle With The Giant Front Wheel And Tiny Rear Wheel.  I was thrilled beyond belief! I was also creating a giant bruise on my inner thigh, which I would notice later, from the act of hoisting myself up on that strange vehicle. Worth it.

The cousins were happy, the Chinatown restaurant was superb, and the day was lovely.

We walked back past stunning City Hall, the tallest masonry building in the world yeah Philly!! There is a craft market this time of year and even a carousel. Here is a tile and a fish spout detail, the view of the tree from inside the plaza, and the central plaza.

 Then we went home and cooked and ate, just us fantastic six. Each of us cooked something!