Up, up, and away, we were this past long weekend, My Guy and I, and New York City was our landing spot. It’s good to get out of our own space occasionally and enter the greater world where we don’t know the place as well.

But, in doing so, we also like to return to spaces we do know a wee bit–there’s comfort in walking into a cathedral such as this where pathways lead wanderers away from city sounds and vistas and into the natural world.

And we discovered new pathways where the sights and sounds of the city co-mingled with nature, albeit upon a raised bed that replaced a now defunct highline rail system.

No matter where we went, there were moments for reflection . . .

of the season passing.

In a way, it was like reliving fall foliage all over again and made me yearn to follow it down the East coast, though that was only a passing yearn for this “four-season worshiper.”

Gardens still proclaimed autumnal colors from the flowering heads of hearty plants growing beside Hudson River, where the north wind did blow.

And a few plants, more protected by buildings on either side of the path, showed off their sunshiny faces, though the petals appeared to make a ragged effort. Still . . . they blossomed.

We had the great fortune to join our hostess for a Victorian Christmas Tour. In reflection, it was not at all what we expected. Somehow, our minds’ eyes had conjured up a vision of entering stately Victorian homes and admiring their Christmas decorations.

This was not that tour at all. This was even better for the tour guide, Rick, was a storyteller who transformed us back in time to help us understand our Christmas traditions long rooted in the past, including Washington Irving’s influence as he told tales of New York’s founding and a Dutch ship wreck and Saint Nicholas riding over the city in a wagon and encouraging the Dutch to settle the land.

As we walked through three neighborhoods with Rick, we learned that O’Henry coined The Gift of the Magi in Pete’s Tavern.

And more about the poor and boisterous Irish who raised havoc on porches such as this at #4 Grammercy Park West belonging to NY Mayor James Harper (founder of Harper and Brothers which we now know as Harper Collins).

While the house next door is a replica of #4, the gaslit lampposts in front of Mayor Harper’s residence were meant to warn the partymakers to not disturb his rest. Or were they actually to help him find his way home? Perhaps both.

One of our stops was outside Lillie’s Victorian Restaurant where Rick shared the story of stockings being filled and the ball ornaments serving as representations of the gold that might have gone into them. And I was immediately transformed into my own story of the Christmas traditions as I’ve recorded in The Secret Giver of Gifts.

For a second, I stepped inside, and would have loved more time to experience this space named for Lillie Langtry, a British actress and late 19th Century Socialite, but we needed to move on.

And so we did, our family, some of our hostess’s family, and their friends, finishing up on a street that was once part of the Moore Estate in Chelsea and Rick recited “Twas the Night Before Christmas,” breaking it down to give us the history behind each stanza and we all gave great thanks for his insights and knowledge.

I hope I haven’t ruined this tour for you and that you will think about signing up for there was so much more. Just be prepared. It lasted about three hours.

Christmas decorations abound throughout the city, including this display at Pier 57. I loved how the fiber and ornaments were so subtly represented and suspect there’s a story behind this artistic installation that I’ve yet to learn.

Nature also showed off its Christmas decor in the form of holly, Ilex cornuta or Chinese Holly, an introduced species. Um, I think we are all an introduced species.

And we spotted Christmas Ferns. Well, I spotted them and tried to explain to My Guy and our youngest that the leaflets are shaped like a Christmas stocking or even Santa in his sleigh, but they weren’t seeing that. I’m not sure they were really looking either.

But I was, and near the Christmas Ferns grew Maidenhair Ferns, like a star radiating off the wiry stem.

We also had the good fortune to meet another movie star, this one at the Museum of Moving Images. It would not have been my first choice of museums, but when your host works for an editing house, you embrace the choice and once we got going, it turned out to be a real treat as we could see behind the scenes of some old favorites including The Muppets.

Being in the city, sometimes we were like the House Sparrows, which didn’t know which way to go, despite what the sign indicated.

Other times it was easy to choose the right path.

And in doing so, we got to meet a small one who is probably low on most New Yorkers’ list of preferences, but which I was thrilled to see honored with a statue.

My Guy dubbed this Pigeon Square. Do you see why?

Thanks to our hostess, or I should say hostesses, we were guests in a small Prescott Park apartment with a view of the Empire State Building, which was lit first to honor Thanksgiving.

And then two nights later for Small Business Saturday, which we appreciated since we own a small business. Well, as I always say, My Guy owns it. I’m just married to it.

The iconic tower soon became our Mount Washington or Pleasant Mountain, for no matter where we were, if we spotted it, we had a sense of our place in this great city.

And I’m here to report that the lights on the Empire State Building eventually go off for the night. The same was true for many of the other skyline buildings.

Before I bring this post to an end, I want to share with you a few of our fellow travelers as we posed beside the Hudson.

These two–our NYC host and one of the hostesses, for whom we are most grateful. He being our youngest.

Our oldest and his gal who made the trip south as well and were able to stay for a couple of days.

And our main hostess posing with us. We give her great thanks for sharing her home and her apartment with us so that we might spend so much time with our family. And treating us to an incredible meal, as well as the Victorian Christmas tour.

We went down to break bread with this crowd on Thanksgiving. And there was lots of bread to break! And good humor shared.

I also loved that I was able to break bread at St. John’s Episcopal Church in the Park Slope section of Brooklyn on the first Sunday of Advent.

And before saying goodbye we broke bread one more time with this young man. We don’t know how he does it, living and working in NYC, oh, and driving. YIKES! But he does it all and he does it well.

Along the way of this five day journey, we discovered we weren’t the only ones breaking bread, though in this case the squirrel’s form of sustenance was acorns, which were plentiful.

Breaking Bread and Acorns in New York City. Not our every day cup of tea, but one which we relish when the opportunity arises.