Party Morning
NEW YORK - My living room
Up so early, party anticipation - party adrenaline makes me want to multi-task, this has lasted for two days and is very handy. A settling feeling too, this making of lists, ordering of food (much more on that later), counting heads and anticipating alcohol consumption, fretting over guests (will they talk? eat? tip over things?), wondering if you've made the hours too short - maybe the 10 who come will space themselves so as never to overlap - a steady stream of awkward one-sies...
And the lists, and the advice that I've tried to take all in one so that Serena Bass's wisdom (gleaned from years in a bar under the Chelsea Hotel), folds into Nigella Lawson's - in turn peppered by memroeis of how mom did it. And then you realize, as I match my plastic cutlery to my plates and fan out holiday cocktail napkins, that I'm part of a line of Christmas Party givers that stretches back? - well, probably not all that far but would include 1950's housewives baking everything from scratch and groovy '60's Christmases and swinging '70's Christmases - and now my parents come into the picture, and me as witness, so I can take it from there. And have with my own party, lots of mom and dad and traditions and this-is-how-we-did-it-and-so-it-shall-be-done directions to R hanging ornaments, choosing Christmas music.
Same, of course, with yesterday's buying of the tree. The crew of Quebequois who take posts on New York street corners in early December, sleep in grubby vans and introduce balsam and pine, crumply clothing and gentle bargaining to our streets. R and I bought a seven footer, and a stand (last year’s too small). R chose - I would have gone taller but though ceiling's (13') can take the height square footage (600) couldn't hold the breadth. 7’ is just fine though – stout and full and like a good tree drank all of its water last night.
Answer to non-New Yorkers's question: How do they get the trees home (seasonal version of where do they buy groceries?) if they don't have a car? Answer - hoist and shoulder two blocks - and do as a couple so one can watch traffic and direct. Lots of smiles as you go, New Yorkers almost fuzzy at Christmas time.
Party might be for 40 or might be 100 – tried to track but really no idea at this point and since there’s a 6-hour window (no-no according to all party-advice-givers) am not entirely sure when the surge (if there’s one) will be. And will they drink? Mingle? Will my Westside Market meat platters sweat and congeal? Turns out when you have a 6 hour party with only a dorm size fridge and you want to serve meat and potato salad you have to do two deliveries so as not to poison guests. And no real fridge also means 90 lbs. of ice (delivered in 3 hours) in the claw foot tub.
Need to get to it, errands to be done and adrenaline all a-go.
Happy holiday weekend to all still reading.
Love
C
Up so early, party anticipation - party adrenaline makes me want to multi-task, this has lasted for two days and is very handy. A settling feeling too, this making of lists, ordering of food (much more on that later), counting heads and anticipating alcohol consumption, fretting over guests (will they talk? eat? tip over things?), wondering if you've made the hours too short - maybe the 10 who come will space themselves so as never to overlap - a steady stream of awkward one-sies...
And the lists, and the advice that I've tried to take all in one so that Serena Bass's wisdom (gleaned from years in a bar under the Chelsea Hotel), folds into Nigella Lawson's - in turn peppered by memroeis of how mom did it. And then you realize, as I match my plastic cutlery to my plates and fan out holiday cocktail napkins, that I'm part of a line of Christmas Party givers that stretches back? - well, probably not all that far but would include 1950's housewives baking everything from scratch and groovy '60's Christmases and swinging '70's Christmases - and now my parents come into the picture, and me as witness, so I can take it from there. And have with my own party, lots of mom and dad and traditions and this-is-how-we-did-it-and-so-it-shall-be-done directions to R hanging ornaments, choosing Christmas music.
Same, of course, with yesterday's buying of the tree. The crew of Quebequois who take posts on New York street corners in early December, sleep in grubby vans and introduce balsam and pine, crumply clothing and gentle bargaining to our streets. R and I bought a seven footer, and a stand (last year’s too small). R chose - I would have gone taller but though ceiling's (13') can take the height square footage (600) couldn't hold the breadth. 7’ is just fine though – stout and full and like a good tree drank all of its water last night.
Answer to non-New Yorkers's question: How do they get the trees home (seasonal version of where do they buy groceries?) if they don't have a car? Answer - hoist and shoulder two blocks - and do as a couple so one can watch traffic and direct. Lots of smiles as you go, New Yorkers almost fuzzy at Christmas time.
Party might be for 40 or might be 100 – tried to track but really no idea at this point and since there’s a 6-hour window (no-no according to all party-advice-givers) am not entirely sure when the surge (if there’s one) will be. And will they drink? Mingle? Will my Westside Market meat platters sweat and congeal? Turns out when you have a 6 hour party with only a dorm size fridge and you want to serve meat and potato salad you have to do two deliveries so as not to poison guests. And no real fridge also means 90 lbs. of ice (delivered in 3 hours) in the claw foot tub.
Need to get to it, errands to be done and adrenaline all a-go.
Happy holiday weekend to all still reading.
Love
C
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