Done. Well, at least present-ably done. Thanks to the tremendous assistance of my friend Cal, I am unpacked, set up and fully ready to be a New Yorker. We worked around the clock over the weekend (OK, we did take time for a few Christmas parties...it is Christmas, after all). Cal was a trooper. We unpacked, unloaded, put up shelves, and hung pictures until it was done. Now, I am fully set up for living. I still have plenty of weekend projects like hooking up the electronics, touching up the 3 a.m. sloppy paint job, and organizing the desk, but the place looks pretty good. Thank you, Cal.
With all the focus on getting settled, Christmas has not only sneaked up on me, it has pounced. I must apologize to all friends and family, as there will be no cards this year. I promise a cool NYC-themed one in 2008. My family have all agreed that due to the trip to New York at Thanksgiving, we are not to exchange presents this year. I hope they have stuck to that agreement, because I have not done a lick of shopping.
Even without having to shop, you can't escape Christmas on the streets here. Cal and I saw the tree up at Rockefeller Center last night. Across the street, the music-timed giant snowflakes on the front of Saks are enchanting. The windows, the shoppers, the bustle...it truly is like all of the Christmas songs.
Except this year, flush with oil cash, it is mostly Russians you see (hear) shopping on Fifth. I must admit, I tire of all the Europeans running around screaming how "cheap, cheap, cheap" everything here is. They are buying up half of Manhattan, while all the Americans shudder at the ever-increasing prices. Even the Canadians are jumping for joy over parity between the loon and the buck. Thank you, President Bush, for the run-away deficit spending that brought such a weak dollar, seemingly making us the world's Dollar Store.
But back to Christmas...I think my favorite thing in the city has to be the stands selling Christmas trees on the streets. The pine smell as you walk through the mini-forest of cut trees really sets the mood. The string of bare bulbs lighting your choices, and the bundled, gruff man screaming out "trees" and "good morning" to every passer-by combine to create a real feel-good moment. Families, couples, and kids are always plucking through the bundled trees, helping one another as they carry their favorite pine several blocks to home. And, it all happens right on the street. This past weekend, the scene got the added attraction of some snow, and it really felt like fleeting moments of true holiday spirit. You cannot help but smile when you walk through one of these tree stands.
Since Christmas has all but pounced on me, I am doing no real shopping, and I won't have time to put up my own tree, this year the tree vendors selling trees on the sidewalks will probably be the strongest memory of my first Christmas season in New York.
And that, as they say, is my Merry Little Christmas.
Have yourself one, too.
