New Thing #355: Ornamentation

It's not the idea that's new today - we decorate for Christmas every year in this house. And it's not so much the decorations themselves, though some, like the Jets ornament you see at left (a gift from a friend who knew I didn't have a Jets ornament) are in fact new.

It's more the way that every year at this time, even the same old thing can feel like a New Thing.

I told you earlier this month about how decorating the outside of the house with a New Thing helped spice that up.

Inside the house, in addition to the Jets football ornament, there's that Mets ornament hanging next to it, in which there's a picture of me and my nephew at his first Mets game from two summers ago. This is its first year on the tree.

That's part of what's special about all of these little knick-knacks hanging all around the house this time of year - remembering certain events or certain people or certain situations in which you were given these knick-knacks.

But the other special thing, I'm trying to find the words for it.

I love my in-home decorating. This is my favorite thing:

It's the moulding (I'm not sure exactly what to call it) over the entranceway between our dining room and living room, where we have our tree. To the right is a series of "Our Family" ornaments. Each year we get a new one (I've learned to get them early in the season so we don't miss out…and this sometimes means I'm buying a Christmas ornament in late October or early November, which I have a big problem with, but I need this ornament each year), and pictures of our family throughout the year stretch down that ledge.

To the left, above, and to the right of the overhang is where I tape up the Christmas cards we get. Usually the cards fill both sides of the wall.

I don't know why I love this so much. Probably because of a couple of things: 1) It's a tangible reminder, right where we sit so often as a family, of all of our family and friends, and 2) I really love getting Christmas cards. I love how the collection starts with one or two shortly after Thanksgiving, and grows and grows, and by the time it's today, the Saturday after our last day of school, and we're on vacation, the walls are covered with cards and it's like it's Christmas already.

It makes me happy. Every year.

And it's one of the oldest traditions in the books, I'd bet.

But every year it feels like a brand New Thing.

New Thing #251: Football On My Phone

I apologize in advance for all of the football talk over the next week-plus. It's a very exciting time of year for me.

Especially this year.

See, I'm the fan of an out-of-market team.

Years ago that meant I was destined to Sunday afternoons on my computer watching the prehistoric version of ESPN GameCast to try to figure out how the Jets were doing as the Patriots games aired on the local stations.

Over the years, though, my options have progressed such that I've alternately owned the Sunday Ticket on DirecTV or been able to seek out a place that does - watching the Jets either at home or a bar or restaurant anywhere within 25 miles of Boston.

This year, I should be able to watch the Jets from my home...or anywhere I happen to have my phone.

I'll have the Sunday Ticket again, but this time it's on my phone - and the story of how I got it is a good one.

I guess I should tell you first that the Jets are on TV in this area the first two weeks of the season. I had calculated this a while ago when I realized that they were going to be a FOX game and the Patriots on CBS...I long ago developed an ability to roughly gauge the chances of watching the Jets at home on local TV based on their schedule and that of the Patriots'.

But after that, by the time the networks recognize that the Jets are terrible, if I want to watch whether Geno Smith will progress into an NFL quarterback, I will need this Sunday Ticket more than ever to watch the Jets. (Or, more likely, to more closely follow my fantasy players.)

So let me tell you how all of this unraveled:

When I went to Florida the conversation with my friend Kevin turned to his Apple TV, and how I could use that to watch Mets games on my TV rather than my phone or computer. Then he told me that he heard about a deal where I could even watch the Jets.

Apparently, if you pre-ordered a special edition of the new Madden football game through Amazon, you could get a code to download the Sunday Ticket to your phone for the entire season.

There had to be a catch, I thought. Kevin thought so too. But we both separately looked up what had been written about the promotion, and it seemed legit. A couple of weeks later, I took the plunge and made the purchase. I bought Madden, which I will never play, and there was my login code. I downloaded the Sunday Ticket app, I entered the info, and there it was - football on my phone. (Including the Red Zone Channel and the opportunity to keep track of your fantasy players using the app!) (Also, it seems to be working OK right now...but there will be no higher anxiety on Sunday than about 12:45-1pm waiting to see if the video kicks in on time. Kevin is feeling the pressure too - he feels like I paid for it because of him, and if it doesn't work it's on him.)

I'm sure next year if this is a success (and I'm sure it will be) the price will be exorbitant or some part of this process will become more complicated.

But we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Because for the 2013 football season, at least, I'll have all the games wherever I want to watch them.

It's basically all I've wanted in my entire football life.

And if the Jets miraculously turn out to be good this year, well then that's just all the better.

And I'll admit - the first time I saw the Manning brothers' "Football On Your Phone" commercial I didn't like it as much as some other people did. But now that I have football on my phone...well, my tune has changed. I think it's a kinship thing. Here that is, if you haven't seen it:

New Thing #248: No More Season Tickets

The NFL season opens tonight when the Ravens play the Broncos. I'll watch the game, of course, but for the 30th-plus year I'll really start caring on Sunday, when the Jets open their season.

This season will have a different flavor to it, though.

Not in the quality of play on the field - the Jets will stink, and unfortunately there have been way more of those types of seasons in my time as a Jets fan than the successful seasons.

No, it's the fact that for the first time in my life, my dad is not a Jets season ticket holder.

My dad has had Jets season tickets dating back to the 1960s. I've always been very proud of that fact. And I loved the fact that, less the tickets he'd give away each year, I knew that any game I wanted to go to, I could.

Of course, ever since I moved to Massachusetts it became a lot harder to go to multiple games a year. But if there was a home playoff game (there were a couple) or really important regular season game, I knew I could come home for it.

Not anymore.

But the truth of the matter is, it long ago stopped being convenient to get from Queens, New York to East Rutherford, New Jersey...and I learned to appreciate the benefits of watching NFL Football on TV rather than in person. (Though I still loved the atmosphere of a big game in a winning season at the stadium.)

And despite my dad being a loyal customer for more than 40 years, the Jets didn't treat him as such. There was more leveraging by the Jets over seating in the new stadium than there was appreciation towards long-time season ticket holders.

So as another season gets underway, there have been elements that have made it not just another season. Usually by now I've put my magnetic schedule on the fridge, gone through the yearbook for the upcoming season, and checked out some kind of free gift - all perks of the season ticket holder. (Even though it was my dad's account, I'd get all the spoils.) I know from Twitter that this year I missed out on a fleece blanket.

This year, there was none of that.

My dad and I have talked about taking advantage of not having to use the upper deck season tickets this year and buying some nice seats to one game - spending a little more on a game to sit closer to the action, but spending nowhere near what he would have spent on tickets to all the games.

So that might happen at one point this season.

There will definitely be a different kind of season ticket to this year's Jets games. And I'll be telling you about that New Thing later in the week.