For the last several years we've spent Christmas in hotels in order to be near our daughter who lives in a small apartment in Astoria, Queens. Her job as an art therapist in the healthcare industry hasn't provided her with enough time off to accommodate a trip down to Virginia. As both our families are in England, unless we face up to the idea of transatlantic travel at peak Holiday times our alternative is to be home alone. The one year we did that I very much regretted it. It's a lot of fun to be in NY at Christmas and we're lucky to be able to go, but increasingly we feel strangely ungrounded. I'm looking forward to actually moving there next year (can't say that without adding a quick chorus of God willing, if all goes well, hopefully etc) No matter how tiny our apartment is we'll darned well have ourselves a tree and I'm cooking dinner!
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This year I remembered to take markers and whiled away some time drawing Christmassy sort of mandalas
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I've learned to bring a few touches of home to the hotel, ornaments, lights, mince pies and so on, and we have managed to maintain one important family tradition.... the Christmas jigsaw puzzle.
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The iconic trees and decorations are at the Rockerfeller Center
but we also appreciated these distinctly less tasteful ones on 6th Ave for their fine reflective quality. It rained quite a bit!
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The Salvation Army danced joyfully along to musical soundtracks this year, blasted out of speakers at their feet. This lady at Rockerfeller Plaza got everyone singing and dancing with her, she had just the right happy face and attitude for it.
You've got to admire the dedication to making an impression when it comes to hauling a grand piano into Washington Square Park. Hope it paid off.
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Whole blog posts elsewhere are devoted to Bergdorf Goodman's amazing windows. The theme this year was BG Follies, very art deco. This was my favorite outfit, a little more punk than most .... she has green satin lined leggings under an embroidered velvet cocktail dress and long green leather opera gloves to match her boots. And of course, the perfect companion!
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Our miniature decorations, complete with British telephone kiosk ornament from Liz and Alan
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David embraces the spirit of Christmas after a helpful mimosa or two for breakfast!
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Love the photo of the man playing the grand piano in Washington Square park. (I've always wondered why the top of a grand slopes the way it does, and now I know, it is a roof to keep the rain off!) Actually a happy/sad image really and says something about his struggle and determination to keep going no matter what. It is odd being so far away from family at Christmas, most of mine are in the UK and we live in New Zealand, and I do have a bit of a dislocated feeling (especially as it is also our mid summer here and Christmas Day was approaching 30 degrees C (86 F).
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I do hope that you both had a lovely Christmas and best wishes for the New Year.
Thank you so much, and the same to you both too. 86 degrees! It's hard to credit how different life is at the other side of the world. New Zealand looks like a very spectacularly beautiful country.
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