So This Is Christmas

Here are just a few of my favorite things about Christmas, past and present and always...

Christmas tree vendors in New York City.  All of a sudden you're walking along one day and a forest pops up in the middle of the city.  And that smell.

Red and green gumdrop wreaths.

A Charlie Brown Christmas.  Particularly the part where Linus learns that Sally has been cast as his wife in the play.  He glances over in distress only to find her clapping happily with a million hearts shooting out around her.  And the music.  And the singing at the end with their mouths in perfect 'O' shapes.  And the speech Linus gives.  And the dancing.  And the Charlie Brown tree, of course. 

It's A Wonderful Life.  Never fails to remind me that, yes, it is.  "Out you two pixies go...through the door or out the window!"

Burl Ives.  David Bowie and Bing Crosby.  Elvis.     

The box of ornaments my mom passed along to me.  Silver garlands that were once probably modern and fluffy, but are now completely matted together and intertwined with bits of Christmas past.  The red and gold beads, also tarnished and chipped, but perfect.  The gold glitter and red felt peace sign.  The paper dove.  The clothespin soldier.  The delicate glass balls that fill the jar usually occupied by old buttons.

Wrapping presents.  Almost always with my signature ribbon criss-crossed across the package. 

Making, sending, and receiving Christmas cards.  And seeing them all hanging up on my front door.

The windows in NYC.  I make a special trip to see Bergdorf's.

The gold angel chime decoration that comes in a flat box and you put it all together and light the candles to make the angels spin around and chime ever so quietly.  Yeah, that one. 

The teeny tiny house in my hometown that used to be covered head to toe in lights.

Caroling with the Madrigals in high school.  Mortifying and yet somehow a blast.  Plus, the floppy red hat and cape were essential.

And the meaning of all of it - my family and friends.

It's Christmas.  It only comes once a year.   

xoxo tara xoxo

Sweet Dreams

Last night I woke up in a panic thinking a bug had crawled in my mouth.  I could feel it there lodged up on the roof of my palate.  Horrified and still mostly asleep, I sat straight up and began spitting frantically onto the sheet. 

This morning I woke up, and after about an hour I remembered this incident.  God, did a bug actually crawl in my mouth?!  It wouldn't entirely shock me, but it was not a pleasant thought.

I poured myself a bowl of Golden Grahams and sat down on the bed.  Reached up to scratch my arm.  Stuck there, right near my elbow, was a sliver of red Ricola cough drop.  Leaning over, I found the evidence needed to ease my worried mind - several spots of pink scattered around the sheet near my pillow.

The dreaded bug?  Merely a mischievous cough drop.

THALIA-N-RAY

So the Queens bound N train platform was astonishingly packed tonight.  One of the doors wouldn't close so they took it out of service, meaning everyone ON the train had to get OFF the train and join the already huge crowd waiting there.  Not one to love being in the middle of an annoyed and shifty mob, I crossed the platform and jumped on the downtown N instead, figuring I'd ride for a few stops until things eased up.

It was one of the older trains with orange seats grouped in sets of three along the sides, and two more perpendicular to the windows.  I slid into a window seat and scrunched in my elbows so I could finish the article I was reading, an interview with Fran Lebowitz.  But, glancing out the window, something else caught my attention.  Scratched in the frame in deliberate block letters was this... 

THALIA-N-RAY   1-19-90 

My first thought: "They're still using trains from 1990?" and my second thought: "Who were Thalia and Ray?"

On January 19th of 1990 I was seventeen and a senior in high school, living in a tiny Minnesota town.  I had short hair, wore big earrings, made some of my own clothes.  It was my friend KJ's birthday.  I worked at the Dairy Queen.  I laughed a lot with friends.  Didn't drink or get in trouble.  Planned to go to art school.  Listened to U2 and REM.  Dated a guy who could be sweet but wasn't good for me or particularly good to himself.  Dreamed of moving to New York City. 

Strangely, I assumed that Thalia and Ray must've been the same age.  I imagined a couple kids from the Lower East Side.  Probably thought they were in love but it didn't last through the summer.  Bet she had long dark hair and maybe she let him braid it on the train.  She wore long dresses and a men's plaid topcoat in the winter.  He was too cool to wear more than a light jacket.  They skipped school a lot but got good grades and the teachers liked them.  Their parents all knew each other a long time ago when they were in school.  Or maybe not, but that's how I pictured it. 

I wonder what you dream of when you grow up in NYC?  Can you really appreciate it the same way?  Where can you go that doesn't pale in comparison?  I guess those that love it stay here forever, and those that are meant to be here find their way eventually.

Within a few months of graduation, I had moved to New York and started my first year at Parsons School of Design.  I've now lived here more than half my life.  I'm a New Yorker.  Still finding my way, but I have much to be happy about.  I hope Thalia and Ray are happy, too, wherever life took them.