Here I sit amid the plastic ties and shredded paper, trying to collect holiday thoughts for a cohesive narrative. The women of the house are all otherwise engaged — one asleep, one building an alternate life on Sims, one syncing and two dancing on the Wii. The place smells of pine needles and coffee, sausages and bacon and cinnamon buns. I'm weighing the merits of the Knicks opener at noon and remembering that I once saw Jordan and Ewing go head-to-head at the Garden on Christmas Day; must have been '85 or '86 or thereabouts — Jordan, I think, dropped 50 on the Knicks, but Ewing won it in overtime. Might have been one of the greatest games I ever saw in person.
Thinking of other Christmases: Peoria, Chicago, Camp Hill, Seattle, Atlanta, Upstate N.Y., maybe a few other places. Know I spent Christmas Eve in Skokie, Ill., eating gefelte fish with my friend Dayna Brown and her family. Last year, we went to Christmas Eve services as the Cathedral of St. John the Divine on the Upper West Side, and I remembered another Christmas in New York, years before, hearing David Sedaris reading "The Santaland Diaries" on NPR while driving into the city with Joelle, before we were married; don't know if it was new or not, but neither of us had heard it before and it was one of those terrific moments when you hear some slice of genius for the first time, unexpected and with no buildup or hype, which obviously can never be duplicated. Remember another time, years before that, when the NPR host on Christmas morning read the wrong piece of paper, and telling us that this was NOT a test but a true emergency announcement and that we should stay tuned for instructions from the government. This was about 1982 or 1983, with Cold War fears fueling awful thoughts of nuclear holocaust. The table went quiet as we stared at each other and tried to discern if we had heard his announcement right. My father called the station, but the phone lines already were completely tied up. A few minutes later, the radio host corrected his misstep, and we all exhaled for the first time in several minutes.
No such drama this year.
To all my friends and family, and to all those who might just wander upon this fledgling site by accident, I offer my best in this holiday season. And don't be mad at us or offended, but we just didn't do cards this year. It wasn't a statement of any kind, or even intentional, just collateral damage of busy lives. Be assured we were thinking of all the good people we know.
So much for the cohesive narrative I was aiming for, but enjoy the following with my compliments: Steve Martin's Christmas Wish.
No such drama this year.
To all my friends and family, and to all those who might just wander upon this fledgling site by accident, I offer my best in this holiday season. And don't be mad at us or offended, but we just didn't do cards this year. It wasn't a statement of any kind, or even intentional, just collateral damage of busy lives. Be assured we were thinking of all the good people we know.
So much for the cohesive narrative I was aiming for, but enjoy the following with my compliments: Steve Martin's Christmas Wish.
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