The Day

 A wonderful, wonderful Christmas! 

On the left, darling granddaughters, Vivian, 17, and Violet, 13, and beautiful daughter-in-law, Paula. At the top of the table is the hostess, incomparable Ellen, then her fiancé, Greg, who may--or may not--actually be wearing the hint of a smile. Then there's the geeky old lady next to her and the photog, my Mike.

After Ellen had spent hours on the preparation, the Singapore/Santa Barbara contingent got her about 2:00. Lots of talk, laugh, and fun ensued, then Ellen's charcuterie (a pretentious name for appetizers) was put out and all indulged along with drinks of choice (pomegranate Margaritas, wine, soda, tea, hot and iced). 

We then opened gifts and of course, all got a lot of nice things. My present for Mike caused much hilarity: I thought cufflinks was a good idea; after all, he's an executive with a very major corporation and--dress shirts, you know. So I bought some at the Monet experience gift shop.... Good grief, Mimi, he's with Apple, where they wear tees and cut-offs  to the job!  Anyway, we all suggested maybe either he or Mike could buy a shirt the needs cuff links--if they even make them anymore. We later Zoomed with my two other children, in Arizona and Tokyo and that was a treat, of course.  Little Mr. K. showed us some of his train artifacts and also played a piano rendition.  

My children gave me (for my birthday) gift of an Apple phone. Mike intended to set it up with the data on my little Cricket, but since I didn't have the password, El will take me to the Apple store later to do it. I was probably not as grateful as I should have been because I thought I had to pick up a different carrier, which would be three or four times the thirty bucks a month I pay now. No, I was mistaken, so now I'm looking forward to having it.

Mike and family left about 7:00 and it's iffy whether we'll be together again while they're in the U.S. . They're going to San Francisco early tomorrow, but tonight, Wes and his girls are coming from Chicago to Carolyn's, where Mike and his may be seeing them. 

I was invited to Vivian's graduation on May 21 and boy, am I in a quandary about that.  I would love, love, love to be there, but the thought of a 20 hour or so trip across the Pacific is daunting . Will mull it over. It could be moot anyway, as right now, Singapore is not allowing visitors from the U.S. That ban would have to be lifted, of course.

"Linner" was served at 4:00 and it was the traditional tamales. Tamales? Yes, this is southern California and it's traditional here. The mother of Ellen's colleague at school home makes and sells authentic tamales and I can honestly say they were the best I ever tasted. They were individually wrapped in paper, then in the usual corn husk (which, when I first had them several years ago, I thought was supposed to eaten) Ellen had also made guacamole from scratch and that could be added.*

*I occurred to me how much more sense this makes, rather than the elaborate turkey dinners, duplicates of the Thanksgiving meal, I always used to make for Christmas.