The Holly Days

 Maybe it should be Holly Daze. The holidays are always a dazzling time, aren't they?  All those sparkling lights everywhere, the glittery wrapping paper, bubbles in glass after glass of champagne, everyone smiling with white, shiny teeth. Makes one walk around in a daze with all that dazzle. 

I don't mean to sound like a cynic. The holidays aren't bad, with the exception of spending too much money, eating too much fattening food, overloading on sugar (cookies!  chocolate!  eggnog and pie!) and being very slothful (i.e. no exercise, blame it on the rainy weather.)  Who doesn't like this time of year, when fake trees abound and fake happiness takes its toll?  All that smiling.  At least those bubbles in that champagne glass serve a purpose: dulling the ennui.

But wait, seriously now. Some holiday things are actually enjoyable.  There is something nice about buying a gift or two and getting to watch the recipient open them, seeing a happy face. Baking cookies and cinnamon bread, filling the house up with great smells. Turning on Christmas tree lights every night, even on a fake tree. Gathering with my kids for a Christmas Eve dinner and laughing at the dogs with their clear disdain for the holiday, especially when made to wear reindeer ears.

In these troubled times throughout the world it is good to have a couple of days to welcome joy into our lives.  With wishes of kindness and peace for the new year, let's all raise a glass of anything to the hope of a bright future.  Or at least a less tarnished one.

Travel on my mind

 Having knee surgery does not lend itself to travel.  Hell, it's sometimes too painful to walk out the front door and get a whiff of fresh air, let alone hobble down corridors in an airport. But even without the ways and means, the desire is always there. 

Sometimes I stop myself from looking at hotel websites when I get the "too-long-in-the-house-jitters" but usually I succumb and indulge in the pleasure of vicarious living. Mind you, I don't usually look at hotels I can actually afford (where's the fun in that?) so it is all fantasy and I can live with that.  What's the harm in checking for availability at the Hotel Plaza Athenee in Paris or the St. Regis in Rome?  Seeing the Christmas trees in the lobbies, the fine dining options, the $2500 per night suites with outstanding views, it all makes me happy and not too envious of those who can afford it. But I do wonder: if you can afford that price, what do you look at and drool over? 

The answer is this: you google "worlds most expensive hotel rooms" and you get a look at suites around the world that cost upwards of $30,000 a night, all the way to $150,000 for an underwater hotel in the Maldives.  But seriously, looking at photos of those incredibly pricey places, they all look like hotel lobbies, not rooms. They are huge, yes, and have great views and wonderful amenities (private butlers, private chefs, free massages, free booze) but they don't look as inviting as the $3,000 per night room at the Four Seasons in New York.

Hey, a girl can dream, right?  And a girl can scale back that dream to a $200 a night room in a cozy hotel in Oregon or Chicago or along the Mendocino coast.  As the knee heals, so my travel world will turn.