This morning I got up and went downstairs to make coffee and open my presents under the pumpkin. I put on my fave collection of Christmas music and had the moment. I have to say I LOVED all my presents and really more appreciated the art of gift giving, though I really did not participate in it this year. So thank you to those who DID! So I guess, really, I appreciated the art of gift receiving.
I got a groovy scarf, an outdoorsy shirt, homemade epicurean provisions and an amazing knife. This all together suggests I could exist in the wilds of New York alone for quite some time.
I put my new scarf on with my shirt and new jeans and headed out to meet Cheline and Hilary for Chinese food in Chelsea. Only bagel shops, Chinese restaurants and Starbucks are open in New York on Christmas day. Sort of a Will Smith "I Am Legend" vibe, but with Jewish and Chinese people. And me. The Chinese food was delish and we had such a good laugh it was almost painful.
Hilary, Pat and Cheline in Chelsea on Christmas Day, 2007
Later Hilary and I went on to Brooklyn to Steve and Nhadine Cohen's house for our Christmas feast. Hilary and Steve went to grad school together. It was a GREAT evening with about 20 people and an all-vegetarian menu of amazing food. Amazing food. I so enjoyed meeting all the people who were wonderful and interesting and really, really friendly. You could tell that Steve and Nhadine are that amazing couple who brings all their friends together. I think theirs is the home you go to when your relationship is falling apart or you just need a cup of tea and a home-cooked tofurkey.
Later Cheline met us with her boyfriend Murph who just flew in from Austin. He made an apple tart that he imported from Texas and it was amazing. Someone else brought a lovely Red Velvet Cake from Georgia. It was just like Christmas on Walton Mountain if Pappa Walton went to Tennessee for a bundt cake and couldn't get back in time for the serving of the traditional red bean paste casserole, but showed up just in time before Mary Ellen was going to make the mistake of her young life.
I have no idea where I was going with all that.
The evening finished off with about the best White Elephant gift giving I have ever been part of. That is that game where you take numbers and the first person picks a gift on the table and the next person can either steal that gift or take a new wrapped gift off the table. I was #5 in line and picked what was to be the MOST STOLEN gift of the evening: "Heroes of the Torah" glasses.
There were two in the set that I had and I loved them. But it was not meant to be as they were promptly stolen away.
Hilary #2 gets posession... briefly
This game went on forever when I finally had my window to reclaim what was rightfully mine, but then I was to lose it all again when Steve suggested a King Solomon-type deal where we would each take a Rabbi and walk away. I could either have one or lose it all for a fleece hat, gloves and scarf set. In white. I went for it and went home with Rabbi Goldberg.
Steve and I learn the true meaning of Christmas by splitting Rabbis.
All in all a wonderful Christmas.
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