And a Merry Christmas to you! Your home is beautiful. What part of Upstate NY do you live in? I'm in the Mohawk Valley... just had 12 inches of snow. A winter wonderland.

Enjoy your visit. The weather tomorrow is supposed to be perfect--for a Florida Christmas!

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.

We've had unusually balmy weather - just a flick or two of snow, earlier, but warm and green Christmas. When I see men walking with hands stuck into pockets, I ask them what's up with the hands in pockets - getting in practice for winter? And suggest to a number of folks that I meet in passing, that if they're in charge of ordering weather ... that they can keep doing this till March, if they like. Usually elicits a smile .. and often a comment in reply. ole joyful