And to recap the holidays

Dragon Mood? -- bewildered

Recap the holidays? Where to start?

The holidays broke roughly into three chunks for me: time with Yosh before Christmas, Christmas Day and time with Lina after Christmas. In retrospect, S and I literally had no time alone during the ten days that I was home. We didn't really plan and make time for each other -- other events intervened -- but when we sat down and talked about it, it made us a bit sad that we had made no time just for one another.

Time with Yosh was brief but thoroughly enjoyable. Saturday, the three of us did meet at Dusty's after individual Christmas shopping for great drinking and memorable appetizers. Yosh drank Maker's Mark, S drank some imported beer I can't recall and I drank the most amazing dirty martini. Vodka martini, Grey Goose, blue cheese-stuffed olives -- are you getting the picture? -- but the most remarkable part of the martini was the tiny crystals of ice floating on that wondrous briny booze. I complimented our server and he said that is a little trick of the bartender's, shaking the martini shaker until the outside has frosted from the ice. That's when you know the environment is perfect for ice crystal-making!

Saturday evening, the three of us played cards. We played two rounds of cribbage (both times beating S!) and then a round of cut-throat, three-handed euchre. We also managed to beat S on that round. There was also a Christmas miracle in there somewhere, but damn if I can remember what it was! We even commented on it! Later that night, S and I broke tradition and actually wrapped gifts for three hours and it wasn't Christmas Eve or Christmas Day!

Sunday was another whirlwind day. Yosh and I drank some yummy Alterra coffee from Milwaukee and then headed to Oliver T's to pick up our traditional smoked and peppered salmon for Christmas Day. We also swung by Beaners in East Lansing so Josh could fire up his laptop and demonstrate for me a new approach to cyber job hunting. That was a curious way to spend Christmas Eve afternoon. It was a gorgeous afternoon, sunny and mild, and I thoroughly enjoyed the time with him.

That evening, Josh made smooshy potato soup for Lina, I fixed brownies for all our adult kids, I started laying out all the stocking stuffers on our bed to figure out who got what ... and darn if I can remember what I did the rest of the time. All I know is that there was no twiddle-your-thumbs time in there -- we were all busy with preparations.

Lina showed up right around midnight on Christmas Eve. She made exceptionally good time traveling from Madison -- I wonder if the speedometer needle ever tired of hovering around 80? Thank God her trip was a safe one!

Christmas Day was all gift wrapping, food preparation, bloody Mary drinking and the like. S's kids and spouses started showing up around 5. We weren't able to start opening gifts until around 7. And then -- whew! -- what a whirlwind of paper, gifts, hugs, thank yous and I-can't-believe-you- got-this-for me exclamations! Our time together as a family even included tears of sadness and tears of wonder! I never knew that a vintage Pink Floyd album could elicit such a reaction!

People started leaving around 10:30 because they had to work the next morning. Matt and Sarah and Madison stayed because they didn't have to work and wanted to play cards. I started fading around 12:30 p.m. I was just too pooped to pop anymore. I remember getting in my red flannel scottie pajamas, wrapped in my new all-cotton white robe from Tim, laying down on the living room couch, falling asleep to psychedelic Pink Floyd music remembering why I was never a good candidate for being a sixties hippie -- sometimes, I just don't like that music!

Pretty much all I remember from Tuesday, the day after Christmas was that the house was trashed, there was wrapping paper and empty boxes and gifts still strewn all around, and we left the house to go see the movie, Casino Royale. Being a card-carrying lesbian, I probably shouldn't say this, but the new 007, Daniel Craig, is HOT! I quit watching 007 movies 20 years ago because they were all so formulaic and actually rather boring -- but NOT THIS MOVIE! There's little computer graphics techno-wizardry and enough edge-of-your-seat action that the movie was fun, enjoyable, even exciting. Go see it! I recommend it!

I'll continue my holiday recap later.