I'd trade the whole Manhattan skyline...

This afternoon I am making a conscious effort to take 'er easy. I am in the thick of finals at the moment, but today I'm letting myself come up for air a bit (though I did take the time to add a couple new things to my etsy).


A friend left his bass ukulele with me while he went home for a bit, and so far I've learned most of "Mrs. Brown" by Herman's Hermits.


I'm taking the time to leaf through the pages of one of my favorite books as a child, "D'Aulaire's Book of Trolls". My original copy was chewed up by rats (true story), so recently I bought an even nicer one from estate sale on etsy.


Also, my paperwhite is blooming! Last year I wanted one so badly, but I lived in a room with barely enough light to sustain my own life, let alone that of a flowering plant. As a kid, my best friend's family would assemble little bowls of the bulbs and pebbles and give them to neighbors as gifts. It was so exciting to watch them slowly grow and start to open their buds, a little hint of spring even in the dead of winter.


I've been making paper snowflakes and taping them up around the house. Today the sun keeps coming and going, peeping out from behind what I wish were snow clouds.


Really though, there seem to be few signs of Christmas in my day to day life. Christmas has never felt like Christmas in the city to me. It seems like nothing even changes! There aren't enough trees and animals, holly bushes and chickadees, no caroling from door to door, no pots of spiced cider sitting on the wood stove, no frosty grass to tramp through. I have to keep opening the doors of my little Eric Carle advent calendar to remind myself that it's all just around the corner.