These are a few of my favorite things.

I love the holidays. Me, and the other 85% of the American population. I love bundling up in pea coats and day tripping through the city - armed with slouchy boots and winter scarves (a white glittered fringe being my current favorite). I love any excuse to sport knitted caps and gloves - as I firmly believe that gloves, specifically evening, are going to make a comeback - and winter is the only time accessorizing with a Starbucks cup should ever be allowed. (Eat your heart out Britney Spears) I love dressing in glitz and making appearances at cozy holiday gatherings. I especially love the craziness; the hoopla and scurrying to find appropriate gifts. I can spend hours at target selecting wrapping paper with matching name tags and bows and even more time arranging table settings and centerpieces. I have inherited the domestic gene from my mother; there isn't a single cocktail party I can't pull off. There is no amount of baking, or cooking, or combination of the two that I can't master and deliver in stilettos and a smile. (And, of course, a fabulously tailored apron) The holiday season has been carefully marketed for the people (of course, who else?). Bring the people together; convince the people to spend money on friends and loved ones - but ultimitely, bring them together.

This year, I wanted to exploit my hosting skills. I wanted to wine and dine and enjoy the company of those close to me. I wanted to spend this season in the arms of my lover building our foundation for the coming year (this is beginning to read like a Nora Roberts novel...sorry). I was excited to spend my time with a man I actually felt something for. I wanted dinner parties, movies by the fire and kisses under the mistle toe. I wanted to walk the city, hand in hand, admiring christmas lights and partaking in all things cheesy and cliche and Christmas. I wanted Frank Sinatra's best and Christmas morning pancakes and champagne in bed. I love this time of year, I love being IN love during this season of merriment. However, my recent breakup has left me feeling betrayed, devastated, and all other emotions resembling anger/hurt/what have you. I am bitter, and whining. So now I wonder, if you can't make a relationship work under the magic of the holiday season, should you abandon hope completely? If Christmas can't bring two people together, what else is there? 'Tis the season of forgiveness and love and all things beautiful. It's magic. Ask any 5 year old and prepare to be enchanted with their eagerness and ability to believe in everything they cannot see. Santa Clause, case and point. If Christmas is about being together, why is it December 19th and I feel completely alone?

I see these couples in department stores, they are embracing the hostility of last minute shopping and the company of each other. Their "togetherness" is intoxifying, and I am envious. Not because I find myself - once again - single, but because they survived. They made it through whatever bullshit happened in 2009, and they made it together. I can't explain the feeling of defeat that suffocates me; I know what I am capable of enduring, what I can fix and what I can live with. But now I know what I can't live without (please don't place me in the desperate woman category, just hear me out). I fell in love this year, and I am now convinced it was the only time I ever actually WAS in love. I fell for a man that was completely wrong for me; however, I am a stubborn gal and refused defeat. I put a lot of weight on this holiday season, because I was excited to share the magic with HIM and because I was sure that same magic would rekindle what had already begun to disappear. Unfortunately for me, neither rang true. So I will ask again, if you can't make love happen under the haze of Christmas magic, what happens next? 2010, cheers to starting over.