Weekend Open Thread:
Chez Holiday

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4 Responses to “Weekend Open Thread:
Chez Holiday”

  1. Fossil Darling says:

    It has been a marvelous if exhausting Christmas. For me to say ‘marvelous’ about Christmas is rare, given my inbred loathing of the time. The usual civility of my parents during their doomed relationship gave way at Christmas as the years passed into a cold war which was thoroughly unpleasant for my sister and for me. And as I grew older and had my own ‘family’ the crassness of the holiday, the fact that so many had so little, weighed on me.

    But this year, to end a long 12 months, it all came together with a wonderful family party last Saturday night in Warwick NY with close friends, to a surprise party on Monday, more surprises on Wednesday and a marvelous Chinese meal,. and on Christmas Day, like RJ and Kathleen, eating out and finding an old haunt that has kept its standards……

    And so to all, having been surrounded by wonderful friends, I wish you the best of the New Year…and hopes that you had a Merry Christmas.

  2. Tony says:

    I had a lovely afternoon, early evening with old friends and good food. It really, as far as having any holiday feeling went, was a bit of a non event. This was nice, in that I walked away feeling that I don’t need a specific holiday or reason to simply enjoy the company of my friends.

  3. Nom de Plume says:

    I stumbled on the best Christmas I’ve had in years. Characterized by ill parents and husband for over 15 years, the past Christmases have all been tinged with anguish. This, my first without both Mom and Dad, featured low expectations and, like RJ and Fossil, minimal fuss and surprise upside. I hosted an impromptu dinner on Christmas Eve chez moi (entertaining for the virtually first time in two years) with two families. A gift exchange in the cramped quarters of the living room sitting area produced giddy cheer while the roast filet overcooked. Never mind! The underdone garlic-cheese grits more than made up for that, and the green beans were perfect! A sublime key lime pie rewarded all of us regardless if we were adept or hopeless at the post-meal traditional charades. Ever notice how talent at this parlor game doesn’t match intelligence, or even creativity? We’ll never forget my doctor brother-in-law with the memory like a steel trap stubbornly clinging to stroking an imaginary beard (“sounds like”), going for “bard” in order to get Shakespeare and then a lucky stab at one of his many plays to come up with Romeo & Juliet. (There was a brief balcony scene enacted, but we were so stuck on the beard that the context was lost.) And my business partner’s cat imitation, lying on her back while kicking and pawing in the air in an equally lame attempt to get “Tom” of Tom & Jerry, resulted in a hilarious petard that amused the kids beyond being able to guess this 50s cartoon. Oh well. Everyone agreed, in their respective Christmas day comas the next day, that it was the best Christmas eve ever. We ate leftover overdone filet in a cream-Gorgonzola space that improved it immensely along with the leftover finished grits now finished cooking and watched movies all day in our jammies. Bliss!

  4. 1904 says:

    I see family at non-event times of year when the pressure to have the Best [Holiday] Ever is off. Chalk it up to performance anxiety. Here we celebrate with the non-denominational but still sacred ritual of a movie and restaurant meal after. And every year we are joined by plenty of reunited-for-the-holiday Christian families, zombie-like as they crash from too much sugar and close-contact with one another and the gift-opening mania, who opt for sitting in a darkened theater so they won’t have to talk to each other until it’s time to eat again. Joy to the World. Every year I am grateful I’ve dodged that bullet. At the end all you’ve really got is your friends. And that includes the family members you really like.