love letter to the city

"What if your great city became a place where all people flourished and prospered?"

I have had the privilege this year of working with Redeemer City to City and understanding more of what they do. This is a beautiful video (that makes me cry every time...) explaining a little more about the mission and vision of City to City. It's worth every bit of 3 min and 5 secs to watch.

merry christmas to all

and to all, a good night!

wishing you days that are merry & bright.

from the gals of 9A.

Bethany, Lindsay Ann, Perryn and Hannah

merry christmas from minnie!

This year's window display at Barneys New York includes a festive video of Mickey, Minnie and friends. I think it's almost too adorable for words, such a fun spin on classic Disney characters.

santa claus is coming

...to town directly at you!

13. family

Today's photo is supposed to be of family. While I have a wonderful family (and even, luckily, some only an hour away), I wasn't able to snap any pictures of them today. Therefore, this is a photo of one pseudo-family of mine in New York: City to City. We gathered together tonight and celebrated Christmas with Virginia-cooked pork tenderloin and turkey (y'all, I'm not kidding), home-baked apple pie and baklava and Christmas caroling. What a special group of people they are.

[mad photo props to Clara since I snagged this picture from her facebook page.]

12. a beautiful sight

...we're happy tonight.

[5th Avenue]

vintage christmas card

What classifies something as vintage? 25 years? 50 years? How about 7...? This card seems ancient from many, many moons ago. Ancient, and full of wonderfully merry memories.

These are my roommates from my sophomore year at Auburn in Mollie Hollifield.  (Aren't they beautiful?) I'm wondering now who even took this picture for us. I can't recall, but I remember the night being a big to-do with lots of wardrobe changes (mostly by me) and closet raiding. 

[circa 2005]

11. green

And the prettiest type of green.

[oops, late again.]

10. wrapping paper

[LATE!]

A Duane Reade special: wrapping paper!

to make your monday a little more merry!

You'll want to watch this - at least - a few times.

9. something you're reading

Rules of Civility. A beautifully written book about New York in the 1930s. 

8. ornament(s)

my own personal (and very favorite) ornament. 

7. bright

Hope your holidays are merry and BRIGHT!

filling nyc subways with holiday cheer

I was serenaded on my commute this morning by this talented & cheery quartet on the 1 train.

[click to listen: Subway Jingle Bells]

to start the day

A good reminder. Thanks to a sweet friend.

6. shopping

Not for myself. I was given this package as a birthday gift from my roommates tonight at dinner (they're so sweet, more on that later).  

how to work effectively:

But, of course, there's only one true, effective way to work during this season: add Christmas lights and cheer to your work surface. It will also really impress your colleagues.

How can you ever go wrong with Christmas lights?

5. today's temperature

A little late. And as boring as can be. 

I started to leave this one out altogether, but I couldn't very well do that. So...err...enjoy?

4. joyous

Tonight at a City to City event, we gathered together, ate pizza, listened to Christmas tunes, drank hot chocolate and wrote Christmas cards to church planters all around the world. Joyous.

To add to the joy, the church planter I was writing to in Hong Kong is a fellow Auburn grad! 

3. red

I look forward to these enormous Christmas ornaments every year.

[50th Street and 6th Avenue]

2. favorite holiday movie

Hands down.

(And this year, I'm reallllly hoping to see the MUSICAL version.)

1. your view today

I was challenged by my friend Kova to do this Capturing December photo challenge. Then my friend Maggie suggested we all do it together. (Great idea!) And, if you've read this blog for more than a day, you already know I love photo-a-day challenges and am always hard pressed to turn one down.

So here we go...I'm in, now. Day 1, hello there.