Here's a pic we snapped of the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center in New York City where we're spending the holidays. Right below it is the famous ice skating rink we've seen on TV for decades but had never visited in person until this year. What surprised us is how small it is compared to the large expanse it seems to be on your TV screen.

The Fifth Avenue crowds were large, but sales clerks along the famed shopping strip told us that though there were fewer buyers this year, they made up for it with large purchases from some of them. Is that the one percent we've been hearing so much about this year via the Occupy Wall Street movement? Well, we'll leave the political analysis for after the holidays.

We were concerned about possibly rough weather this time of year, but it turns out it is our usually sun-drenched New Mexico that was given Mother Nature's snowy one-two punch. Here in New York it is a decidedly sunny and brown Christmas, like the chestnuts roasting on an open fire as they are on all the street corner carts. Nevertheless it is a fulfilling Christmas as I hope it is for you, your friends and family.

From New York, Merry Christmas!