1115.org

I’m not lazy, per se, but I am a wuss. I do not like to be cold or wet. I do not like crowds and I do not like Xmas.

When I found out my office would be closed on Xmas eve it was more gratifying to know that I’d be staying home on a day on which they were predicting torrential rains than it was to know I’d be paid for a day on which I didn’t work. I hate the rain - I do not own a proper rain jacket and I refuse to carry an umbrella for two reasons: (1) I don’t think it’s nice to poke people in the eye, even if they are tourists and (2) I lose them. I also don’t like Times Square and the added bonus of not having to go to work on Xmas eve was not having to go to Times Square on the biggest shopping/tourism day of the year.

. . .But that’s exactly what I ending up doing. The Xmas-hating, tourist-hating, cold/wet weather-hating, Times Square-hating Jew ended up in Toy-R-Us on a rainy, xmas eve with Israelis and a video camera. It was an experience.

I am about to be married into a family chockfull of Israeli cousins. Two of them are currently in the States on some strange mission to get citizenship for the younger one, Avichai. He is sweet and smart and almost 18, about the finish school and go into the Israeli Air Force. His mission while in New York is to get a social security card and lots of pictures of cool cars for his little brother, Yaniv. His father Yossi, whom he is here with, was born in Queens and has American citizenship, but he is Israeli through and through: brash, demanding, utilitarian, but kind and warm at the same time. On the phone that morning, when we suggested putting off sight-seeing until another day, Yossi asked Sam if he were made out of sugar - our fate was sealed, Sam was going to show them a good time.

Sam and I had some trouble finding the cousins in Grand Central Station on Xmas eve, but I was happy to be warm and inside. We were stressed about what to do with them when we found them, so I think we were looking less diligently than we could have been. Though I hate Times Square, I LOVE Grand Central and I was happy to gaze at the ceiling, watch hurried commuters and listen to track announcements over the PA. Even on one of the busiest days of the year, there is serenity in the great hall of GCT.

Once we found them we decided to get a bite to eat. They were pleasantly surprised to learn there was Kosher food in the terminal (Mendy’s of Seinfeld/Banya fame) so we got a bite and then devised a plan: Times Square, Empire State building and Central Park. I was using all the positive energy in my power to convince myself that it would be ok - the rain would stop, the crowds would part, everything would be ok. But it wasn’t. It was miserable and yet somehow, worth it. Coming above ground at the Times Square Station, Avishai’s wonder was contagious. I felt like I, too, was seeing the traffic patterns and day-glo signs for the first time. And when his father suggested Toy-R-Us with the three-story indoor ferris wheel I was almost excited.

Every New Yorker should take a friend or relative somewhere they’ve never been before to see the sparkle of the “first-time” at least once a year. Every time Avichai took out his camcorder I pictured him showing the video to his little brother, narrating in hurried Hebrew what it was like to actually be there.

When we left the store, we spent some time reading the news, ticker-tape style above the Good Morning America set. I was terrified we’d see news of a suicide bombing in Israel. I was paranoid the subject of Israeli politics would rear it’s head. I had been warned to avoid the subject - I have views that would not be received well by these cousins, but the news on Xmas eve was mostly weather and shopping related - we could relate to that. When we visited the site of the World Trade Center later that day, I was afraid again I would start a fight with Yossi, who had already called me stubborn to my face, though he said it in Hebrew that Sam had to translate, but the conversation remained mild - we were all on our best behavior.

I am from a family of Americans. We are Pittsburghers - the radicals have moved to California or New York, but for the most part we are a homogenous group. I am marrying into a family of Israelis, Frenchmen and Germans. Not people of foreign descent, but actual foreigners. It was a thrilling experience to give one of my new cousins a bit of my city - even if it was raining and crowded and Xmas eve.