What I see out my window: grey, gloom, rain. Rain. Not the wished for snow, but rain. Don’t get me wrong, I love rainy days but I prefer them in Spring and Autumn; not December. My yearly lament for snow starts about now. Last year we had several nice snows before Christmas which made it feel more festive. Not so this year. (Those sprinkles of snow a few weeks back certainly don’t count as “snow”.) I guess I have to move to Texas where it is snowing today. Or maybe Louisiana. I heard they were getting snow too. But in New Jersey where everyone talks about how horrible the winters are—we get rain. And it’s 33º F outside right now.

Yesterday morning it was 55 balmy degrees when I got up. What a shock to open the door to let the dogs out and be hit in the face with warmth! So strange. It rained all day yesterday.
Baby Bella is getting cabin fever. Yesterday she tried to go outside and play but was not happy when she did. She likes to sit and look up at the falling drops of rain and tries to catch them in her mouth making cute little smacking noises.

I don’t feel very much in the spirit of things this year. Not quite sure why. So, to get myself out of this non-festive rut I’ve been in I guess I’ll haul out the decorations and start to decorate the house today. I’m sure Bella will be more than glad to help. I have visions of her chewing on the lighted garlands, eating tinsel and anything else she can find to amuse herself with. I don’t feel like decorating. But an undecorated house without a Christmas tree doesn’t do much to get one into the mood either, now does it?

I’ll let you know how it goes!

Not to be outdone by the orchestra at the opera the other night, Bella decided she could play an instrument too. It’s her own composition.

The dress.

The tickets.

Once a year we try to do something really special in the city. The first year we saw Wicked on Broadway, last year we went to the Christmas Extravaganza at Radio City Music Hall. Last night we had tickets to Don Giovanni at the New York City Metropolitan Opera House, better known as The Met. It was our first opera, and we loved it. We’ve seen operas on television of course and enjoyed listening to opera on CDs, but had never seen a live opera. Sung in Italian, we had read the synopsis of the story before we went so we would be prepared. [Don Giovanni is of course an operatic retelling of the story of Don Juan.]

Getting there last night was a breeze which isn’t always the case when driving into the city. Traffic was very light and we made the drive in just over one hour. Incredible to believe we really live that close to such a vibrant city! I had reserved parking at Lincoln Center and believe me, this is the the way to go! We had our own special parking lot for reservations and merely had to walk a short distance from the car to the entrance of the Lincoln Center complex. We enjoyed a glass of champagne before the performance and then found our seats.
 

The Met is beautiful inside.

We had really good seats in the front row of the first tier. The dazzling snowflake-like chandeliers at our eye level quietly slid upwards to the ceiling as the performance began.

We were surprised and very pleased to find that right in front of us, buried in the balustrade, was our very own translator. At the push of a button we had the English translation of the performance as it played out in the form of an electronic display. Just like watching a foreign film with subtitles! They were very discreet and you could only see your own screen that was right in front of you and not that of your seat mate on either side so you had no idea if they were following along or not. It did help to know exactly what was being said but we found ourselves getting caught up in the drama and the music and sometimes forgetting to look at the translation.

I got goosebumps at one point when Don Giovanni and Zerlina sang a duet [“Là ci darem la mano”] and I recognized it from Babette’s Feast as being the one that Martina sang with the visiting star from the Paris opera. [If you have never seen this movie you should. But please don’t get the dubbed English version. Instead, go with the original subtitles, you won’t be sorry!]

The opera was a bit light-hearted and comic at times, and wonderfully done. Bravo!

There is a restaurant right inside the Met and next time we go it would be fun to have a meal there beforehand. With having a new puppy in the house we didn’t feel that this was the right time to spend the extra time away from home. [Bella did just fine with her babysitter by the way.]

People were dressed from jeans to long gowns and tuxes. Rick and I were dressed somewhere in the middle. I can’t really see why people would attend an opera in jeans though, can you? Plenty of fur coats were being worn and as cold as it was last night I was almost, almost wishing I didn’t have an aversion to wearing a dead animal on my back. Those women looked really warm. My wool coat wasn’t quite cutting it!

When the opera ended at 11:45 we headed home. Finally at 1:30 a.m. (we hit a bit of a traffic snarl on the Henry Hudson) we tumbled into bed, happy with our night’s special entertainment.

It’s nice to have a nanny in the house that helps to keep Bella occupied. When Bella first arrived Hailey wasn’t quite sure what to make of her. She would sit and watch her but didn’t initiate any play.

It wasn’t long before the nature of dogs took its course and the fun began.

The “jump on Auntie Hailey” move.

The “chase me” game.

The “oh boy are we having fun in the leaves” game.

I haven’t seen Hailey play, I mean really play, in years. I think it’s been good for her and she’s certainly getting more exercise than she normally does on her own. I monitor their play and make sure Hailey doesn’t get too rough with Bella. Hailey usually tires out before Bella does. That little puppy is a powerhouse of energy!

She makes a great nanny but sometimes I think she wonders why she got the job.

What is it? Can you guess?

It’s a fuzzy puppy head, that’s what! Miss Bella of course with her puppy hairdo. Before too awfully long her puppy fuzz will begin to fade and she’s start looking like someone with a receding hairline. Oh boy, the geek stage is soon to arrive.

I have new videos of her to share but Rick has them on his computer and we just haven’t had time to sit down and edit them so he can send them over to my computer. I hope you won’t be bored with them.

She is a joy! Even though she cramps my style a bit (I am bound pretty close to home) she is worth every second. As time goes by I’ll be able to leave her for longer periods of time, but right now a little over three hours is her limit. Considering that I live about 45 minutes from almost everywhere (except the grocery store) that doesn’t leave much time for whatever I am doing once I get there. Yesterday I took her and the big dogs with me on my shopping errands. We stopped in and visited Daddy Rick at work and she got to walk around and see everybody there. She was a real little trooper and just slept in her crate while I went into stores.

Tomorrow night we have tickets to the opera at the Met. We’ve engaged Luke (who watches the kitties whenever we’re gone) to babysit for the evening as we’ll be gone a long time. I’ll worry a bit like any new mother, but I know she’ll be just fine.

We have heavy frosts every night now with temperatures dipping down into the 20s. We’ve enjoyed seeing the moon with Venus and Jupiter by its side, but alas when I finally realized what I was seeing after three or four nights in a row, last night Venus and Jupiter were nowhere to be seen. So, no photos but many other bloggers managed to get good ones. The first night I only saw two bright points of light and thought maybe they were UFOs or a radio antenna I didn’t know was in that position in the sky. duh! I think I even asked Rick. They were so bright!

doggy paw prints on the frosty deck

I just can’t seem to get into gear for Christmas. I used to love it so. These days not so much. I guess I’ll have to force myself to start doing Christmas-y things. I need to be baking cookies, playing Christmas music, decking the hallway and all that jazz. But instead all I can think about is the drudgery of un-decorating and putting it all away. What’s the point? I’m totally disgusted with myself. bah humbug.

Okay. Stop. Enough mindless rambling for this morning. New Bella videos coming soon!