Mellow Christmas

Very quiet here--not a bad thing at all. A good balance to the Christmases when our 3 granddaughters are her. Just Bern and Mimi and John and me. We had an nontraditional dinner--olives, pate and blueberry goat's cheese as appetizers, beef tenderloin with a herb, butter, crushed bread stick topping, Swiss char cooked in lemon, oil and garlic and twice baked potatoes (John kept calling them "potato boats" which none of the rest of us had heard to our knowledge) with sour cream, yogurt, butter, chives and goat cheese. For dessert we had little pastries--an assortment--from the bakery at Everybody's.

We talked about how when Bern, John and I were children, family visited after Christmas and you'd lay your opened gifts under the tree to show them. Mimi thought that weird. But I remember it vividly--aunts, uncles and cousins dropping by and looking at our stuff and us going to their houses and looking at their stuff.

Today Bern and Mimi and I went to see American Hustle which may be the best ensemble acting I've ever seen in a movie. Jennifer Lawrence proved she could do comedy with the best of them (in a movie that was not really a comedy), Amy Adams and Christian Bale deserve Oscar nominations along with screen writers, costumes, sound track and cinematography. No kidding a must see (aside to MC, you know who you are--don't go see this on my recommendation....)

Having Mimi around is a gift in itself. She fits right into our rather laid back lifestyle perfectly, taking care of herself and reading a lot under a quilt in the living room since she thinks we keep the house much too cool. She's mellow in herself and matches us so very well.

But Mimi and Tim (who I missed having around this Christmas) sponsored a black Lab named Bradley, of all things, who needed surgery at an Animal Hospital before he could be placed with an adoptive family, in our names for our Christmas gift. That's what we've asked our children to do for us for several years now--make donations to animal shelters and pet adoption centers in our names. It was wonderful to have a dog with our name this year!

(OK, I realize this whole post  has been pedestrian and not a little boring! I'm still in 'mellow Christmas' mode. I'll get back to provocative and philosophical ponderings soon. I'm just enjoying how relaxing and joyous and quiet this Christmas has been.....)