There is no snow in Brooklyn. I don't know that I've ever been in the city at Christmas time and not seen snow. Growing up in the far reaches of northern, NY, I find it hard to get into the Christmas spirit with no snow around. Still, I've got my gifts wrapped, the little tree is up, and I've purchased food to cook on Christmas day.
I purchased gifts for the key departments at work and gave them out, took my staff out for a holiday lunch that we charged to the office, and took care of all of the necessary holiday cheer that I felt was needed. Still, I'm lacking some christmas spirit this year. I know some of it is that the office has no holiday decorations of any kind. Hartwick College always did a door decorating contest and we had a lovely lady who always put up decorations in her cubicle as well as helped decorate the office. I think that next year, I'll pick up a menorah, a christmas tree, and do some decorating.
Additionally, I'm not around my family or a large group of friends or a large office to have a big holiday party. I know that my Oneonta friends all had parties, we had a great office potluck, and the College where I used to work seemed to have a lot of festive spirit.
Finally, I know that this is my first Christmas without my grandma. She loved Christmas. She died the day after Christmas last year. I think that she was the reason that my mom and my entire family had a lot of cheer. Without her, we are all struggling to put on the smile and spread the cheer that we used to have. I know that she's trying to work her magic from heaven, but I'm just not feeling it.
On a bright note, lots of vendors are sending my office thank you gifts for working with them. Since there are only three people in the office, we split them three ways. I've got a great bottle of sparkling wine, and lots of chocolates to open on Christmas day. We each had a few delicious hand dipped and decorated chocolate strawberries too. Today, one of the ladies in the cafeteria gave me a little gift (a mug with some hot cocoa mix) since I always bring her goodies when I bake. It was a really nice gesture for someone that I don't know that well. It reminded me just for a moment of all of the wonderful people in smaller communities like Rochester and Oneonta where you share kindness more often.
That was short-lived, though, when I walked ten feet to stand in line to pay for my food and the lady physician behind me told me that the diet pop and fried chicken fingers weren't doing me any good and I clearly should lay off them. I'm not as thin as I used to be, but considering that I've never met or talked to this lady, it was pretty rude, or should I say typically Brooklyn, for her to say something like that to a stranger.
I will not let any of it get me down. My fiancé, David, is coming over for Christmas morning. I've got a bunch of cute gifts under the tree for him and making him smile makes me happy. I'm going to teach him how to cook pancakes (it's been a while so I hope it works out) and we will eat them with maple syrup that was made from sap from the trees on my parents farm. Then we will put a chicken in the crock pot to cook while we go to see the new Star Wars Movie. I will work on being more Christmassy and get in the spirit, even if it is just to do my grandma proud. She would never let Brooklyn rudeness take away her Christmas spirit, and neither will I.
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