I seriously cannot believe Christmas is this weekend. I think I’m getting old because I’m equal parts stressed and excited.

But yesterday, I took a break from the stress to enjoy The Nutcracker with my parents. We can’t remember if we went when I was a child or not, but it’s definitely become a tradition since I moved to NYC in August 2008.

I do remember that I went with my Russian class in high school. We thought we were so cool, coming into the city without our parents, pretending the teachers weren’t actually with us (but we were dorks who really kinda loved our foreign language teachers…) as we went to Lincoln Center and the Russian Samovar.

Lincoln Center is now just a short cab from my apartment, which my parents loved.

Honey, I forgot the eyeliner.

Afterwards, we went to Mercato, a cozy Italian restaurant in my new ‘hood. My body was crying out for some greens after a weekend of sugar and carbs, so I started with this salad. Spinach, goat cheese, apples and raisins.

For my entree, I got gnocchi with a beef and pork ragout.

I thought the food was great, but I’m relatively easy to please in a restaurant.

But…MY MOM LIKED IT. This is big, folks.