birthday celebrations

My parents and Mike's parents came for the weekend, to celebrate their birthdays. Their birthdays are not all at this time of year (they range from July to January), but we celebrated all of them. Mike and I decided to take them to see Jersey Boys for their birthdays this year. We got tickets and planned it a few months ago.

We spent Friday evening here in our apartment, eating fish in a bag (fish cooked with veggies rolled up in parchment paper, YUM) and chatting. Saturday, we bundled up and went into the city. We went to Macy's and did our patriotic duty to help boost retail sales. Then we went to Rockefeller Center to see the tree, which is up but still surrounded by scaffolding and in the process of being decorated. Then we peeked under the cloth covering the Saks Fifth Avenue windows, which will have their Christmas displays unveiled this week. This year it's a cute story about a snowflake named Mike who doesn't fit in.

We ate a relaxing and enormous meal at Carmine's, an awesome family-style Italian restaurant. And finally we went to the theater for the 8:00pm Jersey Boys show. Mike and I got to see it a couple of years ago, with discount tickets we got through NYU when he was a student there. We absolutely loved it, and knew our parents would, too. Tickets are very hard to come by, as it's one of the most popular shows on Broadway.

We finally got our act together this fall and planned it, and nobody was disappointed! We loved it as much as we did the first time, and my parents and Mike's parents, Carol & Renny, loved it too. I learned during intermission that Carol & Renny got to see the Four Seasons perform in Harrisburg years ago, before they were married. We were all so wrapped up in the story and that special magic only the very best shows can achieve, we didn't want it to end.

This morning, we went to the Brownstone Diner & Pancake Factory, which is an awesome breakfast place near us (it was featured on Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives a few months ago). None of us could believe we were hungry again so soon after eating ourselves silly at Carmine's, but somehow we managed to enjoy breakfast. We played a round of Mexican Train Dominoes, during which the most interesting competition was the fierce race between my dad & me for last place. And then everyone headed home this afternoon.

It was a great weekend, and I'm so glad to say everyone had a wonderful time.

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As a completely unrelated aside, I just finished watching New Kids on the Block perform a mix of their new and old songs on the American Music Awards. I must admit, embarrassingly, that I totally swooned when Jordan sang I'll Be Loving You Forever.