Nothing matters when we're dancing

We took the kids to see Santa land and a puppet show of Miracle on 34th Street at the Herald Square Macy's today. Let me just tell you: BIG MISTAKE. I really wish I had asked someone's advice on this before we headed out. I just cannot even believe the number of people that exist in New York, and I'm from India so that's saying something. And what I don't get even more is why all these people are always wherever we choose to go. It happened with Toysrus and now it happened again with Macy's! Literally, everyone in the world was at Macy's this afternoon. And they all decided to stand in line to see Santa at the same time. The only smart thing we did today was to not stand in that line. One look at that line and we turned around and started running in the opposite direction, which was really hard to do because we kept bumping into other aspirants trying to make it to the meet Santa line.

The other smart thing we did was to get tickets to the puppet show. It was really great and I definitely recommend it (but be warned that you have to go through an actual sea of people to get to the puppet theater). The not smart thing we did was get late to the show so we got to sit all the way at the back and the kids really couldn't see all of what was going on. That really made Vir mad and he refused to enjoy any of it, especially if he noticed either Vijay or me looking at him. When we weren't looking, he did enjoy it a little bit. But nothing could have stopped Tara from enjoying herself. Because if there's music involved, you can bet that Tara will be dancing, whether she can see what's going on or not. The kind of music, number of people around, and general atmosphere and context are completely irrelevant details. So she was dancing and clapping all through the show today, even though she had woken up hungry from her nap just minutes before the show started so I expected her to be cranky. Seeing her swaying along to the music and clapping at all the right places really made some of the misery of today's little expedition worthwhile.

Although I have to say, the next time I want to see her dance, I'll just hand her my ipod (she's the one who pretty much controls it these days anyway now that she has figured out how to switch it on). Because there is no way I'm ever going back to the madhouse that is Macy's at Christmas time. If I'm tempted to inflict pain on myself, I'll just make an appointment for a full body wax instead!