A Christmas Ornament Tradition

Every Christmas since I was a baby, my mom has given me an ornament that signifies something important that happened that year. Sometimes they are really meaningful (like the Prague castle painted on an ornament the year I lived in Prague), sometimes they are silly (like a huge peppermint patty ornament to signify when my mom brought peppermint patties to Korea - my students had never tried the treat before and their reactions were hilarious!), and sometimes they don't really mean anything ("I just thought the frog ornament was so cute!"). This year I got TWO ornaments!

Isn't she a little cutie?! This ornament was to represent the play Expecting Isabel I was in this past November. I played 3 pregnant characters and the show was all about trying to have a baby.

An Alice in Wonderland ornament to represent when I played Alice last year! The best part about this ornament is that my mom didn't even have to buy it....she found it while cleaning out my uncle's house. So this one is extra special to me.

I love my little collection of ornaments which represent each year of my life. It's a lovely little tradition that my mom started and I know I'll do the same when I have kids someday.

An Exciting Year of Theatre!

Since moving to Philadelphia, I have been making my way into the theatre scene once again. First, I signed up to volunteer for Theatre Horizon's Autism Drama Outreach Program. I did this throughout their fall program and what an amazing experience this was! I always left exhausted, but with the biggest smile on my face. I grew to really care for those kiddies, even though I only knew them for a few weeks.

Next, I took two levels of ComedySportz Improv classes. This was a great way to unleash the inhibitions that had crept into me over the past few years. I learned how to "play" again and met some really great people.

Then, I started going on auditions. I didn't have the mindset of "I suck and my life will be over if I don't get into this show" (kind of like my awful attitude toward the end of the college. Oops.) I think my confidence really helped because I ended up doing three shows in 2013! Woo hoo!

Alice in Wonderland

I had the pleasure and honor of being Alice! For the second time in my life. (I was 12 years old the first time.) This show holds such a special place in my heart and it was so exciting being Alice again. This show was cut down to an hour and there was a lot of audience participation. They were asked a lot of questions, some were invited to the tea party, to be a part of a race, or to help in the Queen's croquet match. We did three performances at an art center. 

This little girl wore an Alice dress to the show! So of course she was invited to the tea party !

We also performed the show at two in schools in Camden, NJ. It was pretty exciting performing for roughly 300 students. They all got really into and were yelling "Her name is Alice! There she is! I see Alice!" After this day, I left, once again, completely exhausted, but with the biggest smile on my face. I would absolutely love to travel around to schools and perform as a full time job!

Fourteen

The next show, or One Act rather, was called Fourteen. Every summer a great little theatre called Old Academy Players hosts a One Act Festival. Ours was about a socialite who was having a dinner party for 14 guests, but people kept calling to cancel, or cancelling their cancellation. It drives the socialite mad! She takes it out on her daughter (played by yours truly) and the butler. There was a lot of phone & doorbell ringing, place setting rearranging, and chair moving. It was a very funny one act and I loved working with my other cast mates. The other one acts were wonderful as well, and the theatre even hosted a little cast party at the end of the run. One fun fact about Old Academy Players is that Grace Kelly used to "grace" the stage!

Expecting Isabel

I am extremely proud of this show. The director ended up being a woman who I worked on Alice in Wonderland with. She is extremely kind, caring, and incredibly silly. Working with her and the cast was wonderful. The show is about a couple who is trying to have a baby, but is having difficulty. The show goes through their ups and downs of fertility drugs, adoption choices, support groups, crazy family, and the interesting people they meet along the way. I played four different characters! It was a real joy exploring these very quirky different, yet so similar characters.

Lisa - The Rocker/Con woman 

My beautiful flowers from my friends who came to see the show. Thanks guys!!

A Christmas Weekend in New York

This Christmas, Colin decided he wanted to do something really special. So, he booked train tickets to New York City, reserved a hotel room, and bought tickets for us to see Newsies! On the Thursday evening before Christmas, he drove up to Philadelphia. I went in to work for a few hours on Friday morning, but before I left my apartment, he decided he was going to give me my other presents (because a weekend in New York apparently isn't enough this year :) ) He bought me a record player! Now I can play my Grandma's old records. It is also a radio, a cd player, a cassette player, and I can hook my ipod up to it! I feel totally swanky with this thing. Can you say Mad Men? He also bought me giant bag of Korean Cracker bar snacks. In Korea, they would set this out for us to eat while we were drinking at the bar. They basically taste like cardboard, but who doesn't want something crunchy to munch on while you're drinking?

I got out of work at noon and Colin met me at the train station. It is so convenient working next to the train station! We made our way up to New York and to our beautiful hotel, then decided to explore.

We explored Grand Central Station and found the Whispering Gallery. If you   talk in to the two diagonal corners, the sound carries along the archways, to the other person. It's really cool!

We explored Times Square

We even made it onto the big screen! Can you see us?!

We ate a delicious Italian Dinner at a little hole in the wall.

I made friends with a Nutcracker.

Radio City Music Hall

Bryant Park

Rockefeller Center

My sister-in-law and niece were visiting New York from Florida so we got to meet up with them in Central Park and had lunch!

At the theatre to see Newsies!

Obligatory picture in front of the marquee

A Newsies ornament to remind us of our special Christmas trip :)

It was a really special and romantic trip to New York City and I'm super grateful I got to share this Christmas weekend with Colin.

Event at the Please Touch Museum

The company I work for is involved in many charities and organizations. Every November, some of my managers help to plan a major Fundraising Event. I was asked to help send out all of the invitations, and in return, was invited to attend the Event. This year it was being held at the Please Touch Museum. I invited my friend Kelly along to be my date. Now, the Please Touch Museum is one of those places that I've been dying to go to, but don't really have a reason to go just yet. I was so intrigued to see what the Museum held and how they had converted the gorgeous Centennial building into a Kid's Museum. Well, Kelly and I had a blast. Our grand evening began when the taxi driver had no idea where to take us and ended up dropping us off...in the middle of nowhere...at the circus. Then the *lovely* police officer told us we "shouldn't have let our cab get away because it's a long walk to the Museum. Hold on" (walks away.) All of a sudden a car drives up and asks the same officer if she knew where the Museum was and that he was the singer in the band. I remembered him from the previous year and of course my natural instinct was to think, Yay-we've been saved! So I ran up to his car and asked if we could catch a ride, already basically getting into his vehicle. We ended up finding the Museum down the road and the singer made it with about 10 minutes to spare until showtime. And if we're being honest, Kelly and I felt pretty awesome that we could tell people "we hitched a ride with the band."

The gorgeous main hall

Small piano

Big Piano

We were allowed to ride the carousel!!

And it was glorious!

Obviously

So we rode it twice!

I asked the Event Planner if we could have a secret tour of Wonderland. She said YES!

Playing in the river

Even the band rode the carousel! And our singer/driver gave Kelly and me a shout out during one of their songs. If you've never seen The FM Band perform, please look them up. They are wonderful!