Anna Barnett - The Pilot's Wife: Rockefeller Christmas Tree

When I was a girl I always knew that when I grew up I would live in New York City in a beautiful flat. I would play make believe in my room that I was some fashionable woman who wore all the right clothes and had the most beautifully decorated Manhattan apartment.

In my imagination, my room would become this apartment and I would have the best dinner parties and get-togethers.

I also dreamed that I had the most amazing man in my life too, and, especially at Christmas, time we would go to Rockefeller Center and see the Tree all lit up.

Then we would do some window shopping before ice skating in Central Park.

I never made it to New York City in spite of having watched EVERY episode of Sex and the City through my 30’s and still swearing at the time I was gonna go.

Well, I am all grown up now and I married the man of my dreams.

I am now in my 40’s and I live in a small town of about 2000 people with my husband and 2 children. My best friend has lived here all her life and still lives in the same house she grew up in.

I don’t have that posh New York City flat; I live in an older ranch. We don’t have the best dinner parties, I have candle parties and go to Tupperware parties with other moms where we talk about the latest sports our kids are now playing.

And while we don’t have the Rockefeller Christmas Tree, we do have a tree on the way in to town that we look forward to seeing lit up EVERY year. It is really quite beautiful.

We may not have window shopping and outdoor ice skating, but we have the coffee shop to stop into and get some hot chocolate when the snow and ice gets a bit too much. We can always count on a friendly smile and conversation.