I’ve never thought to blog on an airplane, but hey, why not?
My laptop is an approved electronic item, and I rarely have
this much forced down time, so I think this is a rather ideal working
condition. And I’m quite positive my mom will be waiting incessantly for an
update when her empty nest child-withdrawals kick back in now that Christmas
Break is over and Erin and I have, yet again, left home for our respective
“adult lives.”
After 8 months in Yankee territory I finally rejoined “my
people” in the Sweet South. It’s comforting to know some things just don’t
change…
While there, my mom came up with a plethora of blog topics
that she thought you all would find entertaining, and while I’ve forgotten
most, I thought doing a Comparative Christmas was actually a quite appealing
idea. So, now that the decoration are down, the lights have been shut off, and
the tree at Rockefeller Center has been cut into pieces for Habitat for
Humanity, I will take a few moments to look back (and down, being at cruising
altitude of a Delta aircraft) at my Christmas experience in both of the places
I call home: New York, NY and Biloxi, MS.
New York City at Christmastime is completely magical. I am a
big fan of lights: all kinds of lights. Always have been, always will be. One
of my favorite memories is flying into LaGuardia airport late one evening after
the sun had already gone down and looking out the window to see the lights of
the city sparkling up into the sky like gold glitter. The lights of the city
are pretty phenomenal on their own. When you add millions - probably billions- of twinkling colored
lights ON TOP of the already overwhelming shine, you have to literally remind
yourself to breathe.
Fortunately I have found a group of friends who love
Christmas as much as I do. Our Buddy the
Elf level of excitement kicked off on Thanksgiving Day when Santa rolled into
town at the end of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Now, I’ve watched the
parade from the couch in my living room every year since I can remember, but this
time, I was THERE, in PERSON, like a 6 year old – Freezing my toes off and not
giving a rip. We got to the parade route at 4:30am to stake out a spot, and
much to the dismay of the self-entitled children behind us who didn’t even show
up until 6am, we were NOT moving from our front row seats. After the floats and
the fun, we said goodbye to all other Holidays and welcomed Christmas with open
arms with the first viewing of Elf on a comfy couch on the Upper West Side… and
it only got better from there. We went ice-skating in Bryant Park and had hot
cider in a pop-up shop overlooking the rink. We walked up and down 5th
Ave “Oohing” and “Aahing” at the window displays that were nothing short of
spectacular. We shopped at the little Christmas Villages that local vendors set
up in the parks. We decorated trees and went to Christmas Parties and even sang
Christmas Carols outside Central Presbyterian for the Park Avenue tree
lighting. I learned the Alto line of Handel’s Messiah in three weeks and
performed with some of my favorite people in the city, made 144 cookies for a
cookie exchange, told Santa what I wanted for Christmas at Macy’s Winter
Wonerland, and saw the coolest Performance Art piece of A Christmas Carol at
the Abrons Art Center.
WHEW. That’s a lot. And that was just an overview.
I packed my bags and headed home for a restful Christmas in
Biloxi.
Or so I thought…
While home we went to Christmas Parties where we yelled and
laughed over board games and ate entirely too much Rotel and cookies, drove
around the coast looking at Christmas lights – specifically the house that has
lights on the lawn dancing to music on its own radio station, shopped the
boutiques of Downtown Biloxi, sang Christmas Carols on the lawn of Jefferson
Davis’s beachfront home Beauvoir, passed by the lines of snotty nosed kids
waiting to see Santa at the mall, drank caramel apple cider in front of the
fireplace, curled up on the couch to watch Meet Me in St. Louis (a Christmas
tradition at our house), made chocolate/peanut-butter bon bons at Nana’s, and
jumped on the bed in matching footie pajamas before taking the annual family
Christmas photo.
Thinking about it now, Christmas in New York and in
Mississippi weren’t really so different after all. There was a lot of laughter,
plenty of decorations, and many memories made all around. I got to experience
the best of both worlds this year, and I wouldn’t have had it any other way.
Ok, the guy in front of me just figured out how to lay his
seat back, so it’s much more difficult to manage the laptop… Maybe blogging on
a plane isn’t always ideal, but I think you get the general idea…
Y’all come back now, ya hear?
Grace be with you,
Lindsey Shea
