Rockettes Spectacular minus one

Because my grandmother was a Rockette 70 years ago I've grown up going to see their famous Christmas Spectacular Show many times. Lately they've started traveling so we don't always make the trip to Radio City in NYC. This year my grandmother bought tickets for the whole family months in advance so we could all go to the show nearby.

Then...

My dad spent weeks planning a surprise for my grandmother-backstage passes to meet the Rockettes, take pictures etc. Something she'd LOVE.

Then...

We put in the Rockettes DVD my grandmother bought us at the show last year to show Ella and get her all psyched up for the show. She was even more into this year than last year. And she knows that GG used to be the 3rd one from the end on the left :-)

Then...

The night before the big show and the big surprise...my grandmother fell and broke her hip.

Ugh. I cried when I got the phone call. It doesn't help that she'd been in the hospital exactly a week before for a totally unrelated problem. This poor woman! She was spitting mad to have to miss the show and asked every doctor around if they could just drug her up and let her go in a wheelchair. They said no way.

So, we all went to the show. And met some Rockettes. And called her a lot as she sat in the hospital. It was a great show but so sad to not have here with us! But as she reminded me in her New York/Yiddish accent, "it could be worse, doll"



Ella's sneaky face when she spotted cookies when we got backstage


Ella was terrified and would NOT go up for a picture by herself.

My Dad was SO excited!

My mom's friend, me and my mom had to get in on the photo op too

A little video they made for my grandmother (yes, they're holding the picture of her my dad brought to show them).