When the children were younger we used to go to Manhattan to see the New York City Ballet perform The Nutcracker. We hadn’t gone in a while and decided to take our now grown daughter with us for lunch and the 2pm performance. She met us in Poughkeepsie and we took the train to Grand Central. We weren’t sure if the trains were on a holiday price or regular price so we ended up with a peak fare ticket.Once aboard the train I asked the conductor if Christmas Eve was a holiday non peak fare or not. It was holiday non peak, so we ended up giving the Metro North Railroad a bit of a bonus by our paying full fare for a reduced fare trip. Once in Grand Central Steve found he had a little bit of money left on his subway card, so we didn’t refresh that. We were happy to discover that as you only get a few months to use up your deposits on the card and we didn’t want to leave that money stranded.
I had made reservations at Bar Boulud across from Lincoln Center for lunch. Steve and I had eaten there when we went to see My Fair Lady earlier in the fall. We enjoyed it very much, so we figured why not go back?
Sally had the French Onion Soup, which looked delicious, and was delicious to eat also!
She also got a side salad with Champagne Vinaigrette Dressing which she didn’t care for. The salad did look a bit sad.
I had the trout for my entree. 
Steve had the chicken with capers. He had gotten that last time, and forgot to ask for no capers, this time. 
Dessert was a delicious combination of chocolate treats. Yum, Yum.Even better, Sally had an upset stomach and didn’t want to eat any so Steve and I didn’t have to share! 
Then it was a short walk across the street to Lincoln Center. I asked Sally to take a picture of us in front of the dancing fountains. Since we were going to be doing a lot of walking and I was concerned about puddles I wore my hiking boots. Earlier in the day I put my orthotic inserts in my boots and thought they were a bit snug, but figured that I just hadn’t worn them in a while. A month later I was going to wear my sneakers and realized that I had taken my orthotics out of them and in fact had been wearing two sets of orthotics in my hiking boots! No wonder they were so tight! 
At the ballet you could get your picture taken with a ballerina. She wasn’t doing much business on the day we went to the ballet! Here she is waiting for customers! 
Here is Sally striking a pose for me. Long ago Steve and I were invited to the Spring Gala where we saw a performance and then had a gala dinner in this space. It was very fancy and a lot of fun! The only famous people that I saw were Peter Martins and Candace Bushnell (not together). This was just after she wrote Sex in The City, but before it became a sensation on HBO. She later married Peter Askegard, a soloist in the company. 
We sat in the First Ring, last row. We had a great view of all the patterns that the dancers did. I think that the dancers were quite tired of performing the ballet by then, as there were lots of arms that weren’t held as high as they should have been! 
Here is Steve and Sally between coughs. She was in the middle of a bad chest cold, and had to leave the performance several times. The couple next to her got quite disgusted and left. I am not sure if they were able to get their money back. She apologized to the people in front of us, and they said they were so engrossed in the ballet, that they didn’t hear her coughing. We weren’t sure if they were being polite, or if they really were entranced. When Sally saw her first ballet, the people sitting next to us remarked on how Sally appeared to be mesmerized by the dancers. 
Here is the orchestra. I tried to find the instrument that makes the delightful sound.
Here is a video of the celesta-https://youtu.be/faHXQugcz9A
Have you ever been to the ballet?
What is your favorite ballet?
Did you know what a celesta is?
You are Great parents. Happy New Year. Sandy & Mike
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Thanks Sandy! Happy New Year to you and Mike!