Indeed, we had the most splendid time in the city. The Hubs has family just outside and we visit regularly, but to actually spend entire nights in NYC: a rare and awesome opportunity! (Back in the pre-Hubs days I used to go to the city and crash on various Columbia U grad student floors that I'd share with furry creatures and the occasional cockroach, but as marriage has made me a respectable woman my travel arrangements have become somewhat less adventurous but much more luxurious.) We were ecstatic to receive our friend's invitation to take over her apartment while she was traveling abroad, and to make the most of our time we spent several nights walking until the wee hours through the magical wonderland that is New York at Christmas time.
We ditched our high-brow museum plans on the 23rd and 24th and hiked around Central Park instead. The 23rd was bitterly cold, but stomping around the snow-covered park in brilliant sunlight was well worse a half-frozen nose (and half-frozen ears: can you believe I went to NYC without a hat?! Knitter's pride forbade to purchase one, but luckily my down coat has a hood). Christmas Eve we stood in line for an hour to make it to the St. Thomas Episcopal midnight mass; we were just two of the 1800+ people attending. I don't think we made it back to our digs before 3 am (I vaguely remember getting a ten-dollar hotdog at Rockefeller Plaza and a plastic cup of Sake, sold under the table by a crêpe baker: that was our Christmas Eve meal).
Christmas Day we spent with the Hubs' relatives: apart from terrific company we enjoyed a culinary feast that included pâté de campagne and foie gras, homemade in Southern France and shipped to the US by a cousin so many times removed from the Hubs that we don't even know her (?) name; a bûche de Noël made by the hostess, the French-born Mme B.; and more than one bottle of champagne. (And a tray of selected cheeses, Cornish game hens in orange reduction, Vermont ham, roasted vegetables, a very fancy mac & cheese for the youngsters... you get the idea.) Two days of gluttony with the family and then we returned to the city.
Rather than going to any Broadway or Off Broadway or even Off Off Broadway productions we watched three movies, two of which receive my thumbs up: Up in the Air is a deliciously entertaining movie; A Single Man is impossibly gorgeous and heart-breaking. The third film we watched is, in the words of one woman who left the theater 20 minutes into the film, more of a father's day than a holiday movie: The Road is not only depressing (which by itself would be quite alright) but the bloody scariest movie I've ever had to suffer through. There was a point where I, too, thought about leaving. Great movie, don't get me wrong, but absolutely terrifying.
Oh, and I knit a little here and there. Mainly on the bus to and from New York and in between episodes of overeating. I'm working on a plain, seamless round-and-round-and-round-we-go sweater for myself, following EZ's percentage system so that I finally learn something about sweater architecture.
The watch cap I made for the Hubs? My FIL saw it here and sent me the following email on Christmas: "Wow! Beautiful watch cap. Make mine a deep navy blue!" Since then I received orders for two more watch caps and a pair of the Fiddlehead mittens. That's on top of the scarf for the Hubs and a secret Christmas project that didn't get done in time (ouch). I should probably put my EZ sweater aside; then again, it's twelve months till next year Christmas... :)
Now I need to figure out what we're doing tomorrow night.. I don't want a repeat of two years ago, when we went to sleep at 10 pm. (Granted, we had just driven a ten ton moving truck from upstate New York to Boston, through a blizzard, mind you, and were somewhat exhausted.) What are you doing on New Year's Eve??
No comments:
Post a Comment