When we looked at the forecast we realized we needed to wear ALL of our clothes. We had this fantasy that we were going to wander up 5th Avenue, looking at the holiday window displays, with a hot chocolate in our hands. But the reality is that our hands were too cold to take out of our gloves and our snot froze inside our noses. Glamorous, right? This was the second year that D and I spent Christmas day in Manhattan and the coldest by maybe 20 degrees.
We had 5pm dinner reservations at a Lebanese-Armenian restaurant called Almayass so we didn’t want to eat a big lunch. After stopping by Rockefeller Center to admire the tree, Mom found a fab diner on 6th Avenue, just as we were turning into human popsicles, and so we stopped into the Astro Restaurant.
We planned our route south to Almayass over fries and hot beverages which is when we found the National Museum of Mathematics. If you know me at all, you know I started frothing at the mouth as soon as this popped up on google maps. And since I only seem to hang out with folks who get as excited as me about things like Math museums, it became our obvious next stop. On the way down, we stopped to see the Macy’s windows which I have to say I like at least one order of magnitude more than the Saks windows. I found the Saks Disney theme to be grossly white and just generally too homogenous, heteronormative, etc. It’s 2017, not 1940. Step it up. Know what I mean?
And then the National Museum of Math! *swoon* It was like a giant adult (and kid) playground with math in motion. Getting the chance to ride a bike with square wheels was my high school dream come true! There were puzzles and games and interactive physical experiences that made abstract math concepts come to life. We spent two hours in Utopia before heading to our Christmas feast.
Walking into Almayass was like walking into a giant hug. The decor was classy, quirky, and oh so welcoming. It was busy enough to provide that exciting, bustling atmosphere but not too crowded as to compromise the experience. Our menu strategy was to order all of our Armenian favorites, and by the time we did that we only needed to order one actual entree to make it a complete meal. We ordered the classic hummus, tabouleh, dolmas, and lentil soup. Y’all, the lentil soup was to die for. And then we ordered the lamb. I think it’s weird to walk you through exactly what we ordered and how long it took us to eat each course, so unless you comment and tell me that would make your day, I’m going to end this post by saying, WOOHOO CHRISTMAS IN MANHATTAN WOOHOO!
Love,
The Narcolepsy Princess
This is us these days. 