Today I’m grateful for a wickedly spectacular day.

11.30.2023

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Today was a day for the books. My feet are sore, but my heart is oh, so full.

Our morning started in Rockefeller Center. If you’re gonna kick off a Christmas in New York tour, this is clearly the way to do it. The tree, the angels, the skating rink – heck, even the crowds – it was all magical. We walked around and took pictures and gazed at the iconic tree. It was perfect.

Next up was a short walk to Radio City Music Hall to see the Rockettes in their Christmas Spectacular. I was pretty excited to see the show, but I had no idea how truly spectacular it would be. It was amazing. I was already feeling pretty festive after seeing the Rockefeller Center tree, but this sent me over the top. There’s not a chance in the world that someone could’ve left that theater feeling scrooge-y.

We had lunch at Ellen’s Stardust Diner where the waiters and waitresses serenaded us as we ate. We walked through Time Square and then shopped at the Bryant Park Christmas Market.

Two of my mom’s friends are traveling with us, and we ventured out as a foursome tonight. We grabbed drinks and a quick dinner at a super chill little lounge bar I found online and then we ended our night with Wicked on Broadway. I’ve seen Wicked before, but I could watch it a hundred times and not get tired of it. It was my top pick to see in New York and it did not disappoint. I love the story so much, and the amount of talent on that stage tonight was ridiculous! It was so good. So, so good.

To close out the night, we hailed a couple of taxis to take our group (plus 2 others from our tour who had also seen Wicked) back to the hotel. My mom hailed one and I hailed one. As much of a non-event this is for any New Yorker, this was definitely on my New York City bingo card and I’m pretty darn proud to have checked this off my bucket list.

So, how do I pick a favorite moment for today? Well, I can’t. I’m grateful for the whole thing – from start to finish.

If you’ve been reading along this month, you might recall that I almost didn’t do my Attitutde of Gratitude posts this year. There were a variety of reasons why, but one of the biggest reasons had to do with today. I knew back on November 1 when I was pondering doing this or not, that my month would be ending in New York on vacation, and I was pretty sure I wouldn’t want to deal with ‘having to’ keep up with my posts while traveling. Now of course I know that I don’t ‘have to’ do this at all, and I certainly don’t ‘have to’ do it a certain way. This is my own personal challenge and I could have simply stopped a few days early, or posted my last few days when I got home. That’s not really how I roll though. I’m pretty much an all-in kind of a girl, and I thought it would be better to not do it at all rather than have a missing or delayed ending.

But now as I look back on the month, I’m so glad I decided to go for it. I like how focusing on things for which I’m grateful breeds a deeper spirit of gratitude in me. I try to thank God for my daily blessings year-round, but I’m never quite as intentional as I am in November when I’m writing about them.

And in retrospect, even though I thought that ending my month of gratitude on a busy vacation day would be a burden, it wasn’t a burden at all. I was beyond wired when we got back to the hotel, and reflecting back on my day has been the perfect way to come down off my theater high. And it’s maybe even a bit serendipitous that today was the day I get to close out my #30daysofthankfulness. Today was truly the epitome of a day full of gratitude. I mean, it’s definitely not every day that I get to see the Rockette’s Christmas Spectacular and Wicked in the same day. I am literally thankful for every moment of today … sore feet and all.

So now as I lay my head down to sleep, it’s with an incredibly grateful heart. It's been a month of beautiful blessings, capped off by a wickedly spectacular day.