November flew by as fast as Peter Pan whisked the Darling children off to Neverland.

I spent most of the month in Bethpage, Long Island, working on last Thursday’s Peter Pan Live broadcast on NBC (more about that in a future post). But I spent the weekends in Connecticut and New York savoring the final moments of fall, spending time with family, and catching up on theater.

Here’s the view of my parents’ backyard at the start of the month, before all of the leaves went away:

I saw my grandma most weekends. Here she is with little Bijou:

After one of our visits, my parents and I went for a walk along the canal in Hamden.

The skinniest pizza joint you’ll ever see:

I saw three shows in NYC this month, plus Our Town at Long Wharf in New Haven — no photos from that production, but it’s one of my favorite plays and as expected I wept throughout Act 3. It’s the first show of their 50th season and they tied the community into many aspects of the show, including a rotating cast of locals for the wedding and funeral scenes. All of the principle actors were hand-picked from previous Long Wharf productions. During the funeral, portraits of influential members of the theater’s history were prominently featured on empty chairs.

In New York, I caught The Last Ship (Sting’s new musical about a rural English shipbuilding town), a hilarious revival of the Kaufman & Hart play You Can’t Take It with You (a kooky family meets their daughter’s straight-laced fiancé’s family), and a revival of the 1940s musical On the Town (sailors on a 24 hour ship leave in NYC with lots of dance breaks).

Solid recommendation: get tickets to You Can’t Take It with You. By the end of the night my sides hurt from laughing so hard.

Bryant Park, transitioning from autumn to winter:

Two of my globe trotting friends happened to pass through NYC this month and it was delightful to catch up with them! That’s Ellen from Australia in the photo above; we traveled together in Morocco last June. And that’s Melanie from Germany below-left; we met in Jordan one year ago. I spent the day catching up with my longtime friend Emily, below-right — we’ve been friends since age 4!

Later that evening Emily and I attended a DGA screening of the new Into the Woods film, which will be released nationwide on Christmas Day. This show has held a special place in my heart since I first watched a VHS tape of the original 1987 Broadway production in my 9th grade theater class… fifteen years ago. It’s among my all-time favorites and I was so thrilled with this new incarnation — I’m excited to think that people all over the world, especially those with limited access to live theater, will get to experience the magic of this Sondheim classic.

As if this advanced screening wasn’t enough excitement for one night, it was followed by a Q&A with director Rob Marshall, writer James Lapine, and cast members Meryl Streep, Emily Blunt, James Corden, Chris Pine, Anna Kendrick, Christine Baranski, and Tracey Ullman. Somebody pinch me!

One last photo highlight from my time in NYC last month — for a few nights I crashed on the couch at my friend Evan’s apartment in Fort Lee, NJ while commuting to Peter Pan Live in Long Island. This is the stunning view from his living room:

Most of my weekends were spent in Connecticut. Here’s my parents’ adorable pup:

I enjoyed a few blissful walks through my hometown of Wallingford, coffee in hand while listening to the latest episode of Serial.

The Choate campus is especially beautiful in the fall. A football game happening this particular Saturday added energy to the crisp air.

Photos from another campus: my parents pose at their alma mater, UConn. Freaking adorable.

And then Thanksgiving happened — more photos here.

One thing I failed to mention in my Thanksgiving post is this incredible Hot Butterscotch drink my cousin made. It’s a variation of an Emeril Lagasse recipe for Hot Buttered Rum, switching out the rum with Butterscotch Schnapps. The butter/spice mixture freezes well so you can make a big batch and spread it out.

I walked around Choate once more and the colorful leaves of early November have been replaced with bare branches and a light dusting of snow.

Of course I spent most of my time this month at Grumman Studios working on Peter Pan Live. More on that soon!