Holiday ramblings.

Thoughts in my brain right now:

-I love the holidays. Love love love. Maybe it’s because I celebrated two of them growing up (both Hanukkah and Christmas). Maybe it’s because I love the feeling of a full house. But either way I embrace it all. The music that starts playing in grocery and department stores weeks in advance, the inevitable weight gain, the sticky hands and pine needles everywhere, the emptying of my bank account. I love it all.

-My Christmas CD is the best ever. It’s got Nat King Cole, Otis Redding, Judy Garland, Joni Mitchell, the Drifters, and oh yeah, the Harlem Boys Choir. I could sell it and make millions. Instead I give it away to loved ones for free.

-My office holiday party is tonight. It’s in this cozy little pub in the Financial District. Low key, yes, but I’m looking forward to grabbing some drinks and passed apps with the CC family.

-What I like least about the holidays? The sense of anxiety that sometimes accompanies them. The shake up of the routine. The “what I have I accomplished this year?” The “what’s in store for next year?”

-What I like most about the holidays? The love. The sense of community and good will. The opportunity to reflect. The cards. Giving. Receiving. The hugs. The sweaters. The lights. The colors. Singing. Dancing. But mostly, the love.

-This won’t be the easiest Christmas for us. It’s the first year we’ve not gone to New Orleans for Christmas since about 1990. Now that my grandmother has passed away there’s not much point in flying seven people hundreds of miles south. I’ll miss seeing a lot of people. I’ll miss the crazy, elaborate lights on houses, the beignets, driving down St. Charles Avenue, shopping in the Quarter. Just our little New Orleans Christmas traditions. We all know we’ll be back. We know we’re going to try to establish a new tradition that gets us down there once a year. Maybe Jazz Fest or Mardi Gras. Still, my heart will always be in New Orleans at Christmas. But generations change over. And new traditions begin. You have to start somewhere.

-I feel incredibly thankful for the people in my life I love dearly who love me.