That time of year...

It's all of a sudden that time of year - two days before Christmas, streets packed with shoppers, subways filled with people carrying cumbersome packages, Christmas tree vendors making brisk last-minute sales... my favorite fashion blogs not updated nearly as frequently... and so I thought I'd write a quick "hello."

 

Over the past few years I've become a bit of a grinch about the holidays.  Of course when I was little, and all I had to do is come downstairs early on Christmas morning, sit under the tree in my flannel nightgown, and receive a new stuffed animal, a puzzle and the Red Fairy Book, Christmas was an event worthy of an eager count-down and a sleepless night.  As an adult, though, it's so easy to feel rushed and harried and worry about who's going to be where and do I need to exchange gifts with so and so, and so on and so forth... until it all can begin to feel like a giant, stressful chore, instead of, well, festive!

So this year I've tried to do some nice seasonal things, especially during these dark final days of 2011.  I now have a short, chubby, Christmas tree in my apartment, decorated with my ten gold balls and angel.  My husband and I went to Rolf's one evening, a German restaurant on 22nd Street with not particularly great food but really over-the-top seasonal decorations - see above and below.  Going there is quite a trip, though I'd suggest a glass of eggnog or gluwine (if you can tolerate the overpacked bar) over actually going for dinner.  And last night I saw the Nutcracker Suite at BAM, with a friend who had heard about this 'preview' performance.  It was a new ABT version choreographed by Alexei Ratmansky; both of us missed the more showy, Balanchine-style dancing that we were used to, but it was still a treat: the music, the costumes, the overall performances...

So now there's nothing left to do except go to that Balenciaga exhibit, visit with my family on Christmas Day, and then it will be time to start working on my New Year's resolutions... an ambitious list that I started preparing over a month ago.  One item is to stop picking at my nails, but I've probably made that resolution about 40 times already, to no avail.  

On that note, back to work!!