Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Christmas Comparison


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