It’s that time of year again. To shop. I hate doing it but I love giving, so I’m usually in a pickle about now. I don’t even shop for me year-round, so end up getting myself practical things like socks and underwear. But there’s really no way around it. Gifts must be given to honor the spirit of Christmas. It truly is better than receiving. By mid-December it’s like being nine months pregnant: it’s coming and you’re the only one who can get the job done.
This year I took a page out of my mother-in-law’s book. She is a fantastic gift giver and works on it year round. She has shops stashed away up and down I-95 from Connecticut to Florida. She knows them all by exit like the East Norwalk girl she is. “Nielson’s? Exit 11 and hang a right.” Her success comes from making it an integral part of her rounds. There are farm stands and Mom ‘n’ Pop shops to be found when you have time on your side. Her gifts are perfect for each and every one of us year after year. She is my idol in the art of giving.
I’d do just about anything to avoid I-95, so I emulated her plan via western expansion and backroads instead. I figure we can cover more territory if we split it up, and the odds of buying the same gifts are lower. My plan is to re-train myself in the shopping department. To ask myself “WWGD (What Would Granny Do?) each time I head out. I’ve had great success, throwing in lunch and adventure on each jaunt. But be patient with me if you receive a tomahawk, a didgeridoo or a yurt (sorry, family). I’ll learn eventually.
First stop, Bethlehem…Connecticut. The Housatonic and Saugatuck Rivers wind in and around Litchfield County offering great opportunities. “Connecticut” was derived from the Algonquin word “Quinnetukut” which means “the place of the long water.” Next year perhaps I’ll shop by kayak. But I digress.
On my way to Bethlehem, I stumbled upon a state park, an inn and an indian village, hereby continuing my old habit of sidetracking. But who could resist a place called Lover’s Leap State Park? The trail winds its way up to the rock formation for which its named. From here, the Pootatuck Indian Chief Waramaug’s daughter, Princess Lillinonah, and her lover plunged to their deaths in true Romeo and Juliet style in the mid 1600s. She had discovered him lost in the woods and brought him home. The tribe welcomed him, giving him the name of “White Youth Found Wandering”. The conscientious Chief sent him back to his people come Spring to get permission to marry the Princess. But he did not return. Waramaug then promised his daughter to another chief, but she vowed to marry her true love. On her wedding day, dressed in her deerskin bridal gown, she snuck away into the forest to a birch-bark canoe she had hidden to ride the current of the Housatonic over the 100-foot drop of the Great Fall of Metichewan. As she headed downstream, she heard her name being called from above. Her love had returned and was running along the ridge trying to stop her. Their eyes locked just before the falls. He leapt off the cliff to embrace her one last time before “they were swept away in the thundering mist below and were married in the arms of the Great Spirit.” Oops there I go again. Let’s get back to shopping.
After my hike I discovered the Institute for American Indian Studies – where I did shop. Wampum earrings, “sweat lodge” bath beads and leather pouches, all made by local Native Americans. Then I found an Inn which had room – the Mayflower. – and had a lovely lunch.Now fortified, I hit the nearby villages of Washington and New Preston for some traditional shopping and stumbled upon J. Seitz and Co. I kid you not. I am fond of saying “if I were a store, I’d be this one.” Well, I found it…in a row of fabulousness along Shore Road (Hwy 45) on a waterfall in New Preston along with Pergola, Dana Schulman, Privet House and Plain Goods. It seemed to me an odd oasis of gorgeous shops in the middle of nowheresville, but country homes and boarding schools abound nearby.
Homeward bound, I headed east to Terrain in Westport to avoid 5pm traffic on I-84 and had a delicious dinner in the café. I sang along with the jazzy Christmas tunes of WPKN FM, vowing to learn the theme song to the Peanuts Christmas movie on piano when I finally got home. I never even made it to Bethlehem.
Millbrook:
Head up to Orvis Sandanona for clothing, clay shooting/fly fishing gift certificates and lunch, then up the Sharon Turnpike to Creel and Gow and The Orangery. Check out the shops in town then take a stroll through Innisfree Gardens. Pitstop on the return trip at Taste of NY at Todd Hill in the median of the Taconic Parkway.
Irvington:
Stroll through Lyndhurst Mansion grounds and gift shop. See the Christmas décor at the Armour-Stiner Octagon House and have lunch at the Red Hat or MP Taverna. Don’t miss their neighbors Architectural Minerals and Stones and the Eileen Fisher Lab. Walk uphill to the Red Barn Bakery for coffee and an amazing array of baked goods (many gluten-free options) and up the stairs on the left to Ausiel.
I must also mention Sweet Preserves in New Rochelle, a high-end consignment boutique owned by Rye gal Amy Coleman, and Tyson & Co Jewels in Port Chester (between Target and Whole Foods) where Roman will make you a great offer on all sorts of jewelry and trinkets as he is closing the shop at the end of December.
Next year, first stop Bethlehem….Pennsylvania (Christmas City, USA) to shop Christkindlmarkt and the Christmas Huts on Main. I’ll see the North Star atop South Mountain and stay ‘til dark for the Live Advent Calendar surprise. Who knows what else I’ll find?
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!
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