Merry Christmas!

or Happy Holidays! (Pick whichever one is more appropriate to your beliefs and go with it.) I'm looking forward to a delicious supper of tamales with mole sauce, Mexican rice (cheeses, sour cream, rice, and chilies--what's not to love?), and cheesecake at DS & DIL1s place. All homemade. All guaranteed to be yummy. What? You're not having Mexican food today? We'll be opening gifts and having a more traditional meal on Wednesday when DD & DIL2 are home too--ham with roasted cauliflower and roasted winter veggies (roasting does amazing things to cauliflower, I highly recommend going onto Epicurious.com and making their Roasted Cauliflower with Garlic, well, not 6# of cauliflower unless you're feeding an army, but it's totally to die for). So we're getting to have Christmas more than one day. I like that. To be honest I could do without the gifts and just see the family, all the family, for a few hours and be perfectly happy. Tomorrow we're all gathering at my brother and SIL's house for a tailgate party for the Packer game. We'll do a white elephant gift exchange and then eat tailgate type food, you know, grilled brats and burgers, baked beans, etc. while people who care watch the game and holler at the TV. I'll bring my knitting.

December 24--Virgin Gorda.

I love the roads that
snake over islands.
The path of least
resistance through the bush,
The goat path over
and around, picking
out the choicest morsel,
The wild donkey
with defiant eyes
refusing to yield,
The iguana who
does own the road.

One and a half
lanes wide because
there just aren't
that many cars. so
why waste asphalt?

There's nothing like an island tour
in a rattletrap rental van
with rusted-through floorboards
providing extra ventilation and
indoor rain.
~~~~~

I hope you and yours have a wonderful day with smiles and laughter. Here's a Christmas kiss for you. I suddenly remembered being at Turner's with my grandparents, great-aunts and -uncles, some of everybody's kids, and a few old family friends. When it was time to go, we all stood up and hugged everybody else. Just as everyone started toward the door, Charlie Gerst (I think, or maybe it was his brother, Bob) said, "Let's go around again!" So we did. I want to go around again, one more hug and kiss with them all, and all of you too. XXXXOOOO Merry Christmas!
--Barbara Sue