It's time to play the music.

Rockefeller Center, NYC., originally uploaded by gina64.

It's time to light the lights.

The Christmas Tree in Rockefeller Center will be lit tonight and you can watch the festivities on NBC at 8:00 PM (or if you're local like we are you can tune to the NY NBC affiliate and get a jump on things at 7:00 PM). The tree, by the way, comes from Ridgefield, CT, just a couple of towns over from where I work.

There will be all sorts of stars singing holiday favorites - Christina Aguilera, Sting, Sara McLaughlan - but the one that has me most interested is my old buddy Taylor Hicks. I thought he fell off the face of the earth, and after that horrifying Ford ad, his disappearance might not have been such a bad thing. But I know he can sing, so I'm thinking I'll probably check him out tonight and see how he's doing.

I'm really starting to feel the need to get back into the city, especially this time of year. And now that I have so many friends/family who live there - 2 friends in Manhattan, a cousin in Brooklyn and another cousin on 5th - there's really no excuse for me to not visit more often.