Septemberish weather notwithstanding, it really felt like Christmastime today. Walked around the city and it was a village. Did some last-minute shopping, and had forgotten how many friends I had who worked in those shops. I’ve known some of these people for decades.
The streets were quite but not deserted. The students vamoosed days ago. It feels like a village now. Everybody knows each other, smiles, wishes happy holidays, is happy to have customers in the shop. The check-out folks at the library were merry. The tellers at the bank, even though they were caught up in a computer calamity that only allowed them to process one transaction at a time, while holding their breaths, they still were upbeat.
Toothless babies smiled at me. The girls got off the schoolbus beaming, after a half-day at school spent eating cupcakes and watching the puppy opus Santa Buddies. We shopped yet more—restaurant gift certificates from our favorite restaurants, such as Miya and Mamoun’s.
We wrapped gifts. We made cookies. If the visions of sugarplums don’t exactly arrive, we’ll be fine. Could have used snow (the Channel 8 guy had our hopes up earlier in the week) but that’s not a dealbreaker. Happy Christmas regardless, in our havenly hometown.