December 8 is the Immaculate Conception and therefore I am thinking of the holidays almost upon us. I love the holiday season, the chill in the air, Christmas trees everywhere and of course, flowing sparkling wine. Some of my favorite places to go to in New York during the holidays include the Metropolitan Museum with its gorgeous Neapolitan Christmas tree.

I also love this particular fountain on 6th avenue near the Hilton Hotel. Every year I go to see Alvin Ailey and revel in their amazing dance performances. As a girl, I used to love to see the Nutcracker while the holiday train show and the Rockettes have been more recent joys with my niece and nephew.

With my son we also like to see the origami tree at the Museum of Natural History. Today I discovered a tree in Central Park with small christmas ornaments in the Rambles, quite unexpected.

There are many ways to get into the holiday spirit and certainly drinking great wines with friends and family are among them. I am a firm believer in that theory in times of joy and sadness. The holidays can bring about both and I find that seeing Christmas trees with lights and joy on kids faces always does the trick. Today’s wine hails from Moet & Chandon, it’s their Ice Imperial. This is a wine that I was given by my young babysitter as a birthday present. She’s a novice wine drinker and I think the packaging appealed to her as well as the festive natural of Champagne. I drank it while celebrating my son’s second birthday and it was perfect complement for his very sweet birthday cake.