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Today in My History

2000:  Visions of Sugarplums
2001: 
...and So It's Over
2002: 
All I Want for Christmas
2003: 
It's Not the Holidays Until...
2004: 
Silent Night
2005
And To All a Good Night
2006 All is Calm, All is Bright
2007:  Sleep in Heavenly Peace
2008:  Yes, It Was a Grand Success
2009:  Christmas in Whoville
2010:  And to All a Good Night
2011: 
The Year of the Puppet

2012: Comes the Deluge
2013:  It Was Grand


Our 2014 Christmas Letter


Bitter Hack
Updated
: 12/10
The Fantasticks
The Santaland Diaries

Books Read in 2014
 Updated: 12/21

"Gone Girl"


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Quilts


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The Philosophy of Juice & Crackers

The story of Delicate Pooh


mail to Walt

THE NON-CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS

26 December 2014

"It came with out ribbons! It came without tags!"
"It came without packages, boxes or bags!"

In spite of it all, it was really a nice day.  I got up at 6 to make a special cranberry bread, which finished cooking while Walt was at Mass. 

Later we found that Lizzie had discovered a decoration I was going to put on my yet-unwrapped gifts and had dismembered Hermie, the elf, the companion to Rudolph who had been de-nosed yesterday.

Probably just as well...Hermie without Rudolph?  Unthinkable.  I'll just consider those two figures the dogs' Christmas gift.

Ned called mid-morning to do a FaceTime so we could see what was going on amid all the confusion of Tom's house.  I was SO happy he did that! Modern technology has made "family Christmas" a bit better.

In the afternoon, we went to Atria to take my mother's laundry to her.  She was not feeling well, said she couldn't define what was wrong, but that she just felt bad and didn't feel like going out to meet a lot of people.

We reassured her that we were only there to bring her laundry.  She perked up as we visited, but she was definitely not feeling well and doesn't even seem excited to see Jeri today. 

In her guest comment yesterday, speaking of her own mother, Elaine said "In looking back, I realize that the things I found so frustrating at the time, her increasing lack of engagement with life, and her refusal to do anything for herself, was in fact a symptom of her decline."

That expressed perfectly what I am witnessing...her increasing lack of engagement with life and I must factor that into my response to her when I visit, so I can make the end of her life as pleasant as it can be for her.

We left Atria and went to the movies.  I had hoped to see The Theory of Everything, the Stephen Hawking movie, which had been at the theater the day before, but it was gone.  In its place we saw Big Eyes.  For those of you who read this journal, I'm curious about how aware you were of the Keane paintings in the 1960s, which seem to have loomed large in my young adulthood.  They were everywhere and I loved them.  There is a Keane museum across the street from Ghirardelli Square in San Francisco.  I'm wondering how many people relate to those paintings and that era in the way that I do. 

I wish my cousin Kathy were still alive. One of her proudest possessions was an "original Keane." I know she would have loved to find out the story behind them, that Walter Keane painted none of the paintings and that they were all painted by his wife.

We got to the theater early because I worried about crowds on this opening day for this movie.  I need not have been concerned.

When the movie was over, we went looking for Chinese food, but the place we had chosen was closed, so we decided to go for Thai, the restaurant next door to the theater, where they staff knows Walt and we always get free dessert.  The place was jam packed but we didn't have to wait too long.  We sat there, in stereotypical fashion...crowded restaurant on Christmas night, both of us on our cell phones...and the guy at the table behind me was talking about Hanukah.

We were both very tired (and stuffed!) after dinner, so came home, watched Jeopardy and then went to bed.  No dishes to wash, no pumpkin pie to look forward to in the morning.  But other than that, it was a very pleasant day, for a non-Christmas Christmas.

PHOTO OF THE DAY

Nice to put on new soft, warm socks from the girls for TV watching

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