At Home for the Holidays

TD and I recently put up our Christmas tree, which we always enjoy during the holiday season. My sister Cynthia and sister-in-law Barb are coming from Colorado and we'll be together with my two brothers and their families, which will be great. This will be our first Christmas without our parents; my father passed away in April and my mother passed away five and a half years ago so this will be a first for us.
Getting the tree is a project! The calm before the Christmas tree storm:

We used to live on Jane Street, and we have been getting our trees for thirty (!!) years from Billy Romp and his family who come down from Vermont and set up shop in the month of December at the corner of Jane Street and Eighth Avenue.

We love to see Billy each year. We pick out a tree and he straps it onto a cart that is attached to a bike and he walks with us to our apartment. We set up the tree and have a glass of red wine and catch up on the year.
Soon Billy is on his way and we get to work -- the lights, the ornaments, the star on the top, the cloth  below.
And voila –

I like how the tree adds a colorful glow to the room. Everything on the tree is personal to us. We have collected a lot of antique ornaments –

And a lot are handmade. The ornament in the middle that says "Greetings" was one of the last things that my mother made and sent us. She liked to create cards. TD cut out the paper angel on the left. 

In the front hall I put some evergreens in a glass vase and hung a few ornaments on the sprigs –

Our Christmas decorations include this reindeer on the living room fireplace mantle who has a pretty wreath around his neck. I found the reindeer at ABC Carpet and Home –

The fireplace doesn't work so we put a big candle in it for a warm glow –

I'm so grateful to be seeing my siblings and extended family this holiday season. I hope that your holidays have a warm glow too dear reader and I wish you all the very best for the new year ahead.

A Night at the Opera

The cast of La Bohème takes a bow in front of the golden curtain.
The other night TD and I went to the Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center to see La Bohème. I always love going to the Metropolitan Opera. Everything is dark red velvet - the seats, the carpeting, the walls - it's like being inside a jewel box. Also people really do dress up to go to the opera so it's good people-watching and you don't see the casual, sloppy clothes worn to Broadway theaters. I've always wanted to see La Bohème, which is the Met's most performed opera. There is that great scene in the movie Moonstruck where Cher and Nicholas Cage attend a performance of La Bohème at the Met. And of course it's fun to go at Christmastime as there is a beautiful snowy scene. You can read all about the production here.
Operas are interesting for me too because they are like art history come to life. La Bohème debuted in Italy in 1906, though it is set in Paris in 1830. It was written by Giacomo Puccini, who lived from 1858 to 1924. Here is Mr. Puccini, a dapper fellow -

I like his double-breasted coat and bowler hat.
La Bohème is of course the story of a group of artists, or bohemians, in the Latin Quarter in Paris, and a love affair between two of them. The arias in this opera are some of the best known in the classical world - it's one hit after another!
The Met's production, designed by Franco Zeffirelli in the 80s, is a splendor. It starts out in an intimate garret in Paris and then moves to a joyous parade in the street with a cast of seemingly thousands (photos from the Met web site) –

Act 3 is the snowy scene. It is set outside a small inn where the lovers meet. Snow falls and darkened figures travel along a road in the background. It really is like a painting.

Act 4 finds us back in the Parisian garret. I won't tell you how it ends.

The music is glorious and the visuals divine. It was such a holiday treat here is New York City.
Blog bonus - an excerpt from Act 1 -


I am wishing you dear reader a holiday season of beauty and love –

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

I hope you are having a wonderful holiday season. I have had an unusual season this year – super busy at my new job at Ralph Lauren, and also very preoccupied with getting my father ready to move to Colorado, which I wrote about on the blog previously. So my attention has been elsewhere and the holiday season has literally flown by, but TD and I have enjoyed some wonderful parties and entertainments here in New York City.
Last weekend we at last got our Christmas tree up (above). We got it from our friend Billy Romp on Jane Street who has supplied our tree since 1988.
For my birthday, which is at the end of November, we went to see Pippin on Broadway!
(photo from Pippin web site)

When I was in high school, I went to see the traveling version of Pippin in Utica at the Stanley Theater. I took a girl. Later we went to the junior prom. Let's just say I enjoyed Pippin more! This production on Broadway is directed by Diane Paulus, who was the genius behind the recent Broadway production of Hair, and it features gymnasts and acrobats in a circus setting. It was so colorful and entertaining. We sat in the first row in the balcony. I had great time.
My photo of the curtain call –

On TD's birthday, which comes one week later, we had a delicious lunch at Union Square Cafe –

Up at Bergdorf Goodman, the theme of the holiday windows is the arts. This glittering one is based on music –

They do such a fantastic job with their windows. This one is inspired by film. It looks like a Greta Garbo silent movie –

Down Fifth Avenue, TD enjoyed viewing the big tree at Rockefeller Center –

We went to see the Matisse cut-outs at the Museum of Modern Art. I love these Christmas colors –

My mother had a cousin named Bondie O'Donnell, and he has a daughter named Julia who has a daughter Uma who is 14 years old and is studying here in New York City at the School of American Ballet. She's a real ballerina! I think Uma and I are second cousins once removed. Anyway, TD and I took Uma to see George Balanchine's The Nutcracker at the New York City Ballet at Lincoln Center. (photos from the web site)

It was so beautiful. I had seen it years ago but really had not remembered how ornate and gorgeous it is.

Here we are at intermission, O'Donnell second cousins once removed.

Today is Christmas Eve. We are going tonight to my brother Eric's in Montclair for a family dinner. There we will say good-bye to my father who is moving to Colorado on Friday.
This is a picture of the two of us a few years ago at a wedding –

I will miss him a lot.
And I am wishing you all the best for the holidays and the new year, dear reader. 

Christmas in New York

(click on photos to enlarge)
We have been celebrating the season here in NYC with lots of get-togethers with family and friends. I enjoy this time of year because we get to see so many loved ones – it fills up the well for the year. New York City has been donning the lights so that everything sparkles with color like Radio City Music Hall, above, and the Empire State Building, below.

Up at Rockefeller Center, the big tree had a slow start. Here it is before it was lit –

and then lit on a rainy night –

Finally recently on a balmy night it shone with golden flags waving overhead.

Our friends Katherine and Jim invited us to go with them to hear Chanticleer, the renowned male chorus. The concert was held at St. Ignatius Loyola, the majestic Catholic church on Park Avenue at 84th Street, which was built in 1886 and was the site of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis's funeral in 1994.

The Chanticleer concert was beautiful and moving. It is the sound of angels singing. I recommend it!
The chorus takes af final bow: 

We went to get our Christmas tree on Jane Street from Billy Romp, where we have been getting our tree since, yes, 1988 –

Billy put our tree on his delivery bicycle/cart and brought the tree to our apartment through the streets of the Village –

The next night, we got it decorated –

Uptown, the stores windows were dressed for the season. I love this crazy scene at Prada with the wild floral luggage and the mannequin wearing grey socks and turquoise sandals.

At Bergdorf Goodman, the theme is "Holidays on Ice" which is a good way to celebrate fashion and luxury year 'round.
Pictured here is Valentine's Day, a glistening boudoir dripping with icicles.

A close-up of madame –

With all the activities of the holidays, I needed to lay down for a nap at home

which was quiet and still.
I am wishing you the love and joy of the season, and peace and stillness too –

Happy Holidays from NYC

At the Jane Street Tavern where we had a drink, TD drew a Christmas tree on the paper table cloth.

Dear reader, I hope you are having a joyful holiday season. I have been a little sad this time around. My mother loved Christmas, and I have many wonderful memories of family Christmases growing up. Even last year when she was declining, we had a jolly Christmastime in Connecticut. But TD and I have been having some fun adventures in NYC this holiday season. New York City is cheering me –

At ABC Carpet & Home, a beautiful Victorian Santa was poised to talk to children on a long velvet bench. (click on photos to enlarge)

I love the retail displays at ABC – they sprinkle flower petals and glitter nonchalantly over everything.

I went up to Grand Central Station one Saturday afternoon to meet my high school friend Suzy Ferenczy MacEnroe, and discovered there the newish Apple store which has been ingeniously integrated into the hallowed halls of the great train station. The elves, I mean "geniuses", wore festive red tee shirts.

Up at Rockefeller Center, skaters circled on the rink under glittering golden flags and the renowned  Rockefeller Center tree –

We were invited to celebrate the 50th birthday of our friend Toby Usnik at a lunch at the University Club on Fifth Avenue. Toby is the head of corporate communications and chief sustainability officer at Christie's auction house and his partner Harlan who I have been pals with forever is the president and chief executive of Armani Exchange. The Saturday night before the party we read in The New York Times that Harlan and Toby had been married! So the party was both a birthday and wedding celebration. Read their story here.
This wonderful and inspiring event at the University Club was held in one of the great rooms in New York –

There was a birthday/wedding cake on every table.

Up Fifth Avenue at Bergdorf Goodman, the gorgeous windows were inspired by the Ziegfeld Follies from the 1920's and 30's.

Downtown, the unfinished tower rising at 1 World Trade Center was lit for the holidays. Electricians working on the construction had installed colored wrappers on the building's lights. The top of the tower disappeared into a foggy night.

Our friends PR impresario James Laforce and his husband Stephen Henderson along with Fernando Santangelo hosted the best holiday party ever. It was held at 5 Beekman Street, downtown near City Hall. The building, constructed in the late nineteenth century and featuring one of the first elevators in the city, is now completely deserted, and so the party had a spooky theme. When we walked into the lobby we saw an upside-down Christmas tree hung over a piano where a ghoulish looking musician played.

Overhead rose the open nine-story atrium with a glass roof above.

The old elevator lifted us up to the eighth and ninth floors which were jammed with revelers for one of those parties where you run into everybody you have ever known. All of the bartenders and waiters wore grey makeup which made them look ghost-like. It was just a blast.

One brisk day I took a walk around picturesque Brooklyn Heights. The sidewalk of an old apartment building was lined with big pots stuffed with cabbage roses and cyclamen – cheerful plantings for the winter season.

At home, we always love our colorful, warm Christmas tree decorated with personal ornaments and mementos.

We have happy plans with family and friends for the holidays, and I'm grateful for the present moment and the gifts of the day. I wish you and yours the best for this holiday season and the new year to come.