Handel's Messiah

In regular Thornock Christmas Tradition, Em and I wanted to hear Handel's Messiah. Since we will not be in Arizona for Christmas to sing it at the top of our lungs on Christmas Eve, we chose the next best alternative - go and hear the NY Philharmonic play it! We had such an incredible time. The music was phenomenal!! We really enjoyed ourselves. Although the singers did not bounce up and down during "For Unto Us a Child Is Born" to a blasting record, it was a great experience.

NY Philharmonic

Emily and I went and saw the NY Philharmonic perform Friday December 5th. It was the first time either of us had been to seem them at the Avery Hall at Lincoln Center. They are unbelievable! I was telling Em that we should have our kids play in the Orchestra and they can only quit once they can play Beethoven's 5th symphony.

They performed Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 in B-flat major followed by Schumann's Symphony No. 4 in D minor, with Beethoven's 5th Symphony in C minor as the finale. I could listen to them perform for the rest of my life. I loved it so much - and we really had a good time. The Brandenburg's are so light and fun and Beethoven's 5th was so powerful.

This is the 7th and final year for the conductor Lorin Maazel. He was really entertaining to watch. The music was heavenly and we had a wonderful evening.

Madama Butterfly

Emily and I both really enjoy the opera. We went with her parents to go see Puccini's Madama Butterfly performed by the Metropolitan Opera. It was stunning. It was so well done and the music was so stirring. Although really heavy, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We look forward to going again soon.

Radio City Christmas Spectacular

The Christmas Season cannot officially begin until you have seen the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular performance.

First of all, Radio City is absolutely enormous. It was so much fun to be there and to see it inside. Second, I was there with great company, my wonderful wife Emily and her parents Bob/Carol. Good times.
Third, we were sitting on the 6th row. That was cool - I dont think there were better seats in the house.
Fourth, the Rockettes were out of this world. It was so cool to see their precision and performance. I didnt realize how many there were - it was sure impressive.

We had such a fun time! What a cool experience.

All My Sons

OK - so we had probably one of the best experiences here on Broadway last week. Carol, Bob, Em and I went to see the Broadway play "All My Sons". Now, a little background information: I absolutely love plays and dramas. I think they are so fun. Em and I have seen quite a few, and up until this point my favorite was Frost/Nixon with Frank Langella (which by the way is coming out to movie theaters this December with Frank.)

Anyway, the play was written by Arthur Miller and is about a family after WWII. It has Katie Holmes, John Lithgow, Patrick Wilson and Dianne Wiest. The play was phenomenal!! I have never seen such great acting. And to be honest, Katie Holmes was good, but Lithgow and Wiest were out of this world. They were stunning! It was one of the best nights and one of the best things I have seen. Loved it!!

Bob & Carol ... fun times for everyone

So, we have had Bob & Carol here for the past 2 weeks sharing their Thanksgiving with us. We have had to much fun! It was such a riot just hanging out with them and enjoying the holidays. Carol took all the pictures, so I will wait to post them. But it was such a nice holiday with them out here. It was much better than Emily hanging out alone (since I had to work Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving).

Thanks for putting up with us. I am impressed that we made it 2 whole weeks together in a small 1 bedroom apartment without killing each other. It was a great time and we had a blast. Love you guys!!

Miko & Connie

My brother Mike and his wife Connie came out to visit us. We had such a blast. Thanks for coming out - we had so much fun. Thanks for the fantastically entertaining times - and you know exactly what I mean ....

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times

Yep, you guessed it. We went and saw one of the newest shows here on Broadway, A Tale of Two Cities. It started less than 2 months ago and didn't get really good reviews. I guess because of the rumors spread by the critics and the tough economic environment right now, the show actually got the boot. I feel bad for all of those investors - they spent all this money writing the songs and before it could really get started, it is gone. Wow!

But, Emily and I absolutely loved it! We thought it was fantastic. We found out Sat around 3 PM that the last show was Sunday, so around 6:30 we went to Times Sq and got tickets. They were great - mezzanine directly in the middle. We really had a ball and are so glad that we saw it before it closed the doors.

Needless to say, it was the best of times for us, the worst of times for the actors! :-)

WINTUK - Cirque Du Soleil

We did it. We finally saw Cirque Du Soleil - Wintuk here are Madison Square Garden. We heard great things, so decided to go and see it. It was phenomenal! The dancers/actors are so talented and were doing the craziest things. Probably more tailored for children, because it is about this boy who wants it to snow to usher in Winter, but we had a good time.

DISNEY WORLD

We broke down and decided to go to Disney World! I know - you are probably thinking why did 2 adults with no children go to Disney? We are fairly close to Florida, and Em has never been, so we thought it would be fun. We flew out Friday night after work, and then flew home Tuesday night. It truly was a magical 4 days. We stayed in a Disney World hotel, so we were lucky to have the Disney Magical Express pick us up from the airport, and had extended hours every day to the theme parks.

We went to Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom. We had such a great time! Rob's favorites were Space Mountain and the new Everest ride at Animal Kingdom. Also, there was a really fun Buzz Lightyear game/ride that was pretty fun. Emily's favorites were Splash Mtn, Space Mtn, Rock'n Roller Coaster and Everest. Her ultimate favorite experience was when we rode Splash mtn, and when we finished, there was no one in line and the people let us ride it again without ever getting out of the boat.

We really got lucky with choosing a great weekend, the lines were really short so we got to ride every ride multiple times. The weather was also so wonderful - a nice break from cold New York. Enjoy the pics!

NYC Visitors

The visitors keep coming, and we absolutely love it! Last week we had my brother and his wife (Rick and Barb) come and visit us for a few days. It was so much fun! We had an absolute blast. We went to the Moma, Met museum, Central Park, Chinatown, Madison Sq park, Wall St, and even took the Staten Island Ferry. We even had times for some cards! It was so much fun having them here.

They left Wednesday morning, and my Aunt Jean and 2 cousins Krista/Shelley came. Emily was able to go see 13 with them on Saturday afternoon, and then we all went to Mary Poppins Saturday night. It was a fun to chat with them and catch up. We are grateful that they came and stayed with us, especially since they let me stay in their basement one summer and let Em and I stay there for a few weeks while we were waiting for our apartment to open up. Thanks guys! It was fun having you out.

Rick & Barb

Brian & Sonya