Chelsea Market and the Plaza's Santa

I desperately wanted to go see an art exhibit in Chelsea. It was my third time trying to see it, and unfortunately my third fail. Going to an art exhibit with kids is one thing, but being told you're going to have to wait somewhere between two and four hours to even enter the exhibit, I know my kids well enough to know that we would be one big, fat word: miserable. So...since we were already in Chelsea and I had promised the boys some cool art we headed to the Chelsea Market, where the whole building is an insanely-awesome work of art!

My little friend Everett batted his eyelashes and the woman at the gelato counter gave both boys free ice cream. It pays to be cute sometimes!

Talmage knows how to read now, have I mentioned that lately? It's really just adorable to hear real words and sentences come out of his mouth, and sometimes I catch myself smiling from the other room when I hear him working through a book. I love books myself and couldn't be happier that my boys feel the same way. We sat in this cute bookshop reading for hours, the boys nestled comfy cozy in the wall.

Chelsea Market had a paper tree that was just lovely. We've seen our fair share of Christmas trees in the city the last month, and I loved how simple and original this one was. Now, let's talk about how grumpy I am that Talmage taught Everett (who I can always count on for a smile) to make this crazy face during pictures. Is this what being a mother to boys is all about?

Our wiggles weren't exactly all out so we decided to pop into the Plaza and meet their Santa. I must say, our Plaza Santa experience was by far the easiest, and whoa that Santa was sweet. There was no line, everyone was kind and it was just simple and beautiful. Not that I'm surprised coming from the Plaza hotel, but it was seriously a class act.

My favorite part of this Santa experience was hearing Santa and T's conversation at the end.

Santa: Can you do me a big favor?

T: Uh-huh.

Santa: I'm going to be hungry on Christmas Eve from delivering toys to everyone, so can you leave some cookies and milk under the tree for me?

T, eyes super wide: Uh-huh. Yeah. I'll do that for you, Santa.

Everyday since he's been reminding me about leaving cookies for Santa, and it's just the sweetest thing.