The primary reason why Kim and I come to New York City every December is to see and gather with our family. Our family is somewhat less New York City focused at this point with oldest son Roger and his wife Valene living in Delaware and youngest son Tom and his wife Jenna living in Denver. Nonetheless daughter Carolyn and her husband, John, and our two granddaughters Charlotte and Evelyn, remain firmly rooted on the Brooklyn waterfront. Roger and Carolyn‘s mother Mary and her partner Art still live on Long Island, and Tom’s mother, Carol, still lives on Union Square. And our wonderful and always-young-at-heart cousins, Pete & Nancy, our country mice, still venture down from Ithaca for their holiday gathering with us. As is the case with most families, the diaspora keeps moving forward and outward, spreading itself slowly, but surely, across the country, if not the globe. I will note that even the country mice are seeing their family spread far and wide with their son Pete in Buffalo and their son Anthony in Montana. The world may expand outward, but the heart stays focused here in New York.
Kim and I also still have lots of friends in the New York City Metro area even though some of them are also wandering away over time. Motorcycling friends Ann & Chris seem permanently anchored in Tribeca and David, Matthew, Phillip, Candace, Lennie, and the full array of the cabaret community, remain in Manhattan and probably always will. I have fewer and fewer work friends here, but have a lunch planned today with Roger and Larry, so I too hang on to some friendships tied to the city. Beyond that, the city itself may hold us captive less than less, but there is still a goodly portion of our souls the cling to New York like gum on the sidewalk.
This year, the Cornell Club put us in the A.D. White Library on the third floor, which was a pleasant surprise with its warm and welcoming bookcases and leather furniture in keeping with the traditional city club atmosphere. We even had a roaring fire, compliments of a big screen TV with a YouTube Yule Log I had them put up on it. That set the stage for Kim‘s fabulous “My Favorite Things” theme. Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens went on a to include AG-1 packets (my morning ablution supplement to keep my body moving in the right direction) and Patchouli soap (Kim’s throw-back fragrance of choice). I had given Kim incessant grief over the past three months that her task to all party gatherers to add to the “My Favorite Things” theme with their own favored spin ended up working very nicely. Roger did a PowerPoint presentation with his portable projector, Mary passed out containers of her famous tri-colored Italian cookies, Charlotte showed her Barclays Center award-winning video of the affects of climate change on a poor but lovable polar bear, Carolyn passed out customized dog ornaments to all the dog owners around the table, John stood up with his new Esquire/GQ smooth-Dude bespectacled look and shared something with the crowd that no one (including me) could understand, as a testament to how much smarter he is than all of us. Evelyn did limber splits for us, Nancy & Pete shared some Ithaca love with all, and Tom & Jenna shared their videography and pottery respectively. Even Carol showed us her latest new age craze of Mandala drawing, which we were all supposed to do while meditating, but she had to interrupt the spirituality of the moment by realizing that the chalk wasn’t working as it should…go figure. Damn! Note to self, prepare better for calm meditation. Speaking of calm, Roger (Mr. Works-Like-a-Horse and eats shit if required) gave Tom (Mr. Work-Through-the-Night due to hard drive corruption) a placard that read “Every dead body on Mt. Everest was once a highly motivated person, so maybe calm down…”
The tall tales of travels and Christmas magic spread all around the room for several hours with everyone wearing their version of holiday finery. Indeed, Kim wore a new dress she had been given by friend Ann, who shops at only the classiest downtown boutiques. It was a pleated crepe affair in red with wide side gussets that made it jump out from her body in all directions and flounce when she moved. It gave her a sort of Christmas Tree shape. This alta-moda, haute couture looked like it was straight off the runway in Milan. I made the mistake of laughing about how unusual it looked and it took some serious groveling on my part to get past Kim’s offense. Strangely enough, I ended up saying quite genuinely that it may well be the nicest thing I’ve ever seen her wear. Phew! Another note to self…keep your big mouth shut vis-a-vis party wear.
The Cornell Club did us proud. For only slightly more that the same price as the prior evening’s dinner at the Strip House, with half as many attendees, we got a lovely private room, a private open wine bar, a charcuterie board, excellent steak or Veal Milanese dinner with pumpkin cheesecake as dessert, all served by our own private waiter. No one pressured us to get out for a second sitting and we were only a seven floor elevator ride away from our room. I think I will reserve the same room for our gathering next year it was so nice, such high value and so convenient.
We bid everybody a Merry Christmas (Happy Chanukah in the case of Jenna) and kissed everyone farewell at the end of the evening as everyone toddled home. Carolyn, John, Charlotte & Evelyn as well as Mary & Art headed for their parking garages. Tom & Jenna as well as Carol went out to snag a cab. Roger and Valene stayed the night and left early for Delaware. Pete & Nancy took a morning walk and then boarded the midday Cornell Bus back to Ithaca. And Kim & I slept in to prepare for another day today or merriment with friends during the day and a cabaret gala down on Gramercy Park this evening. We are blessed to have such a rich and robust family to convene each year for this annual gathering. It always makes me remember that we all only have so many Christmases and we must always take care to treasure each and every one and joyously anticipate the next for as long as the holiday fates allow. As they say the the end of Moonstruck and as we always say on our hilltop at Casa Moonstruck, Ala Famiglia!