The holiday season is the best time of the year for most people. These months bring beautiful snowfalls, delicious, sweet drinks, cozy sweaters and cute boots, cheery Christmas music and the loving embrace of the holiday spirit all around you. The holidays are a time to relax and be with the people you love and who love you. When I think of the holiday season, my vision may be a little different than some people's vision. I don't picture cutting down a Christmas tree in a big, open field on a farm, or a few lights strung up in a little town or hot cocoa after shoveling long walkways in a huge yard. I picture dirty snow and slush pushed up against the sidewalk ledges, and a 90 feet tall, huge Christmas tree in the middle of the city, and shuffling down the cobble stone streets with snow and ice crunching under my boots and people passing me in every which way. To me, holidays in the city are incomparable to any other location.

As I sit in my room at college in a small, little town, I'm just aching for that feeling of driving down the interstate and starting to see the skyline that I love and smelling the air that's just saturated with home and comfort. I can't wait to drive through the twists and turns of my labyrinth of a home, finding myself staring out the window up at towering buildings decked out in decorations for the season and down at doggies on leashes and in sweaters trotting through the snow and people bundled up, carrying bags of presents they just bought for the people they love. The city never stops moving. It's like a heartbeat that needs every inhabitant to keep its rhythm. And during the holidays, mostly everyone is filled with this same spirit and joy that pulsates through our home and makes the city even more magical than it already is during the rest of the year.

For me, the are so many little things about Christmas in the city that make my heart happy like kicking snow off of the steps of my home as I pull my coat tighter around myself, taking in the sharp winter air; Seeing Christmas trees and lights and decorations through windows with their curtains drawn and realizing that even in this city made from cold concrete and brick and stone that there is warmth and tranquility within the homes of the people I share it with; Feeling that gust of warm air as you duck out of the flow of a busy sidewalk in the cold and into a shop, a restaurant or what-have-you and feeling your rosy cheeks start to warm up and your fingers starting to tingle with feeling again; Waking up in the morning swathed in blankets, stretching out and deciding that all you want to do today is make cookies and watch movies, but possibly the best part of these days is being able to look out the window at a city filled with controlled chaos, covered in white snow and know that you're safe and content in your little space in the heart of all of the life makes up your beautiful city.