On Saturday I had an appointment and needed to kill some time, so I ducked into Bloomingdales to get out of the freezing cold. The last time I tried to take a picture there I was stopped. This time it was so frenetic no one seemed to notice. Still I was feeling a little shy from my last try so not wanting to get into anything I only took a few.

My son is so excited about Christmas that he keeps asking me over and over — what did I get when I was his age? My answer is always the same, I don’t remember.  What I do remember about Christmas is my mother baking like crazy, popcorn balls, fudge, molasses cut outs, sugar cookies…my grandfather and great-aunt bringing us chocolate Chanukah gelt and my dad ringing the bell on Christmas Eve pretending he was Santa and then leaving his old Army duffel bag filled with gifts on the dock.