Making up for lost blogs

It's Christmas time again. And for the first time, EVER, I'm spending the holiday in New York City.

Yes it's cold. Yes I'm away from family. And yes, it's amazingly beautiful.

Christmas Tree at Rockefeller Center

My mother and sister were in town the first week of December, as a preemptive festive strike.

We discount-designer shopped at Century 21, we got $22 mani/pedi's, we drank wine in a hotel rooftop bar overlooking the Manhattan skyline, we saw Bernadette Peters and Elaine Stritch do their (rather remarkable) thing in 'A Little Night Music' on Broadway and we decorated my first, ever, live American Christmas Tree.

They were also here to see me perform in one of the two 'Christmas Carol' adaptations that kept me gainfully employed throughout the month of December, up at Boscobel in Garrison (home to the Shakespeare Festival during the summer).

The second performance was in the city at the beautifully refurbished Morgan Library on Madison Avenue, with Dominic Chianese (or Uncle Junior for any "Sopranos" fans) in the lead. It turns out the library owns Dicken's original manuscript, and produced a new 'chamber' version of the classic by composer Ray Leslee. The evening went over very well, and I'm now on the Morgan Library's radar as someone who can produce an authentic British accent for all their upcoming Jane Austin and Emily Bronte readings. :-)

Until such time, 'twill have to be enough to enjoy the season and not worry too much about what's next.

So for now, good food, good nog,

and worst case scenario,

more time to blog.

Merry Christmas... from Dr. Seuss, apparently.