Belated Merry Christmas to all. Especially to Triciae, who was on my mind a lot this holiday and will be during future holidays. Dear Wonder Woman, I hope you are doing well, where ever you are. Thank you for showing me what courage and strength and kindness are. We drove down to the Bay Area for the holidays. Christmas Eve we had dinner with our good friends in Berkeley, raw oysters with mignonette, cracked crab, and the traditional Buche de Noel. Last night we had dinner with other good friends in Richmond, tenderloin, mashed potatoes and a warm cauliflower-brussel sprout salad. I made half of the tenderloin, cut pieces 1" thick and tied them into rounds, pan cooked, with a sauce of reduced white balsamic vinegar, Muscat wine, shallots and garlic, butter, sauteed mushroom stems, blended smooth, then simmered over whole mushroom caps. No recipe, just made it up. Our hostess roasted the rest of the tenderloin with a red wine and shallot reduction. We were supervised by a friend who is a head chef at a large hotel and, for the first time in many years, didn't have to work on Christmas day, but was nonetheless pressed into service which he did with good humour. I've been negotiating a stressful matter at work for the past few weeks. As of Dec 24, we were uncertain whether our little business unit would be shut down and I had prepared myself to be jobless come Jan 1st. That all got resolved satisfactorily at noon on Christmas Eve, final document review pending, so for the first time in a month, I was able to relax and unclench. It was nice.

Thank you, and may you have the same…a very Merry, peaceful Christmas.

"I've been locked out of GW for the past month!" It seems many posters are having problems. I'm able to log in and post ok, but nothing shows under my activity. Hopefully they'll fix that, so will be able to find my old posts for reference. I was away over New Year's, and at the hotel on Jan 1 no one's card worked to unlock their rooms. ACK! Poor desk clerk was running all over opening up people's rooms for them. Hopefully they finally got that sorted out, it was something with the flip to the new calendar year and the system controlling the locks.

Just wanted to share her name…”Lily.“ It was at the top of my list already when I talked to our grandson yesterday. He asked if we’d picked a name and added ”…because I like the name Lily.” Done! It really seems to fit her.🥰 I’ve just been calling her ”Peanut” and today somehow ”Lily Bean” came out of my mouth. Funny how we can tweak pets’ names like that. Our first Cavalier was Buddy, and I’d call him Buddrick McGudrick.🤷‍♀️ chisue, one thing I didn’t realize until after we had Buddy for a few years was the difference between a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and a King Charles/English Toy Spaniel. They both have the same four colorings you posted…Blenheim, King Charles, etc. Their facial features differ with English Toys having more of a ”pug” face as shown here on the left, and the Cavaliers on the right. The four color markings…here on Cavaliers.