There is magic in the air
This is Dexter, my brothers car. On top of Dexter is Harold, our Christmas tree. These fellows met on a rainy afternoon this past Friday as I tried to make my kids holiday dreams come true.
My daughter had been begging to get a tree every day for a week. I kept putting it off and putting it off until we decided Friday would be the day. Of course, what started out as a relatively clear day turned to hard rain at exactly the time I picked the kids up from school and we began our excursion to find a tree. “Well, at least we won’t have to water it today,” I said trying to keep the holiday cheer going. I tuned the radio to one of those oldie stations that plays nothing but holiday music for the entire month of December. The rain was beating down and the windshield wipers seemed to be swiping in time with the chipper music.
While my daughter and I picked out a tree from a corner bodega (in true NYC fashion), my son went across the street to one of our favorite pizza places to grab us all an afternoon snack. The man from the bodega tied the tree to the roof of the car while my daughter and I huddled under an awning in a feeble attempt to stay dry. The excitement was building and our plan was to decorate the now-soaked tree that evening. I jokingly commented on what a mess it was going to be and how we’d be finding wet pine needles stuck to things for weeks. “Well, maybe we can shake it out before we bring it in,” my daughter shrugged with a hopeful tone. No matter what, as with most things, it would be an adventure we wouldn’t soon forget.
My son returned with a soggy pizza box grinning from ear to ear. “Well that has never happened before,” he beamed. When he walked into the pizza place, sitting right at the door was none other than Spike Lee (a true Brooklynite) eating a slice of pizza. He had ordered over 300 slices for the neighborhood in honor of Danny Aiello and was posting on Instagram with the restaurant owner, Sal. My son was only a few feet away and had watched the whole thing, truly mesmerized and genuinely star struck. We were feeling the magic and the Spike Lee encounter put a pep in our soggy step for sure. Meanwhile, the man at the bodega had finished securing the tree and I went to pay him. I don’t know if it was the holiday spirit or Spike Lee or just that rainy moment on that Brooklyn street corner, but I was inspired to pay the man generously for the tree (and the stand). He and his wife were so surprised and grateful and wished us a happy holiday season amidst blessings and thank-you’s.
We proceeded to eat our pizza in the parked car before heading home with our newest family member — the tree stand and stump hanging over the windshield as a reminder that brave Harold was hanging on up there and was in fact the wettest of us all. “There was a lot of magic on that street corner today,” my son chirped as he gobbled the cheesy pizza slice. “No amount of rain can stop that.” No buddy, it sure can’t.
May the magic of the season be with you and yours.
