December 1st

Last night my sister and I went to the store looking for decorations in preparation for our Christmas party, and just to start making the house look a little more festive. We argued over most of them...me wanting coordinating (white lights, matching ornaments), her wanting multi-colored and a large singing santa. I won...seeing as I was paying and the party is at my house. Though she is still insisting my matching theme will be boring. We came home and threw the stuff in a closet to put it up another day, and she went home.

I turned the television on to be faced with the tree lighting in Rockefeller Center. Just another reminder of something I love about the city that I had to leave behind. Now this shouldn't be such a big deal to watch on TV. Hubby and I actually went to the event one year. It was freezing and we had small girls pushing us in a mosh pit, as NSYNC was performing that night. We didn't even stay to see the lighting. We went home and finished watching on tv. Every year after that we've just stayed in our NYC apartment watching from the comfort of our warm couch, just like everyone else in the country. But the memory of it always seems more romantic than it really was...so as I felt the nostalgic pain in my stomach I decided I wasn't going to let it get me down. I opened the closet and took out the bags of decorations and tried to put a few up myself. As the carolers sang, I hammered the garland to the bar and belted out my own songs. Husband came over and tried to help and encouraged my awful singing.

I have a few decorations up. I think we're getting a tree tomorrow, since I have the day off. I'm just gonna keep singing until the spirit catches up with me.

"Jingle Bells....Batman smells..."