My family spent Christmas at Cindy’s condo in Washington. Teri, Mark and Harry came up from California and I from Oregon. Cindy’s two boys were home from college and I was able to spend time with them which I have never before done in such close quarters. Cindy has a small condo, so there was much togetherness. Nick, the younger son, is into philosophy, religion, mythology and those types of studies. Since I am not a religious person, know nothing about mythology and next to nothing about philosophy . . . actually nothing about philosophy, I just listened to him. He is studying music and played some choral music by Palestrina that was so beautiful it made me cry. I would say my time spent with Nick was very enriching and valuable to me. I also spent some time alone with Pat, the older son, when he drove me home to the Bed&Breakfast where I was staying. It was only about 4 blocks away, but neither one of us could find it. I’m terrible with directions, and Pat had no idea where we were going. We finally did get there, and I thoroughly enjoyed the time spent alone with Pat . . . and I didn’t cry at all. Of course, we weren’t listening to beautiful music.

Teri, Cindy and I had our usual conversation which went something like this:

1. Does my butt look fat?
2. Do I need more botox?
3. Is my hair too long?
1. Are you sure my butt doesn’t look fat?
2. Do you think I need botox?
3. Should I cut my hair or not . . . come on now, I need help!
1. Shut up already! We’re all vain, so live with it.

This could have gone on all night, but we wisely decided to spend time on Christmas- related topics such as kids and food. Harry, my youngest grandson, was so enamored with his two older cousins that we didn’t spend time alone – that came later at my house.

Christmas Eve we opened presents which went on for quite some time as there were a lot to open. Christmas Day Cindy cooked her famous rib roast. It was so rare that I imagine all she did was open the oven door and pass the roast quickly by. It was delicious! I love rare meat – hardly cooked at all – and so do Teri and Cindy. I taught them well. I wasn’t sure how everyone else felt about the blood rare meat, but who cares? We girls loved it and that was enough for me!

On Christmas Day we all went to a movie like everyone does on Christmas. We saw “Casino Royale” which we all loved. It was my first Bond movie, and I fell in love with Daniel Craig who plays James Bond. He is rugged, virile, handsome and very cute! I think everyone felt the same way about him . . . maybe not the falling in love part though.

The day after Christmas, Teri and family and I took the train back to Portland to my house. I made Harry’s favorite meal -- baked spam with my secret sauce, and chocolate cookies all smashed up and mixed with whipped cream. He had that for two nights while I cooked grown-up food for the rest of us. I think we all were secretly wishing we were eating spam and pigging out on chocolate cookies and whipped cream with Harry. The best thing was when we realized “Law&Order” was having a TV marathon on Saturday and Sunday! How could we have been so lucky? Harry, Teri and I are big fans of all the “Law&Order” shows, so we had them going all the time. Mark sneaked away to a sports bar across the street to watch a football game. There were games on? During the Christmas season? How rude!

Teri and family left on NY’s Day and I started putting my home back together.
I think there’s a good reason for having Christmas just once a year. It takes a year to recover while, at the same time, getting ready for the next year’s Christmas.