Christmas past

 What's that about Christmas? It's so yesterday. This year we were so busy that we had one week to bring the holiday spirit into our house and put it on the table, culminating with a really lovely salmon dinner for 12 friends and extended family at our house. We didn't even have a tree, but a "sculpture" which I would share  with you, but it just looks too strange in photographs. But though there was no tree, there were no lack of flowers, no lack of Decorations, or should I say Alterations? Please forgive the edge of cynicism. This Christmas dream stuff is serious business and not always easy in case you've forgotten already. Some people love it and others wince; it's not neutral, it's emotionally painful, too Christian, too... I can relate- every year I sit in the middle, waffling between the agony and the ecstasy. This holiday season that we engage in or try to skirt around and resist involves about one month out of the year. That is a heck of a lot of time. So give yourself a little pat on the back. You've come through to the other side again. And you may be wishing, like myself to do a little hibernating as you may be a wee bit plumper. Maybe followed by hiking or skiing or getting back into the garden. And if you live in California, you know that spring is very close, very close indeed.