Up the Down Staircase

In my garage here is a pull-down stair. Obviously all of my Christmas regalia is up in the attic, and with two broken ribs I deemed it unwise to go trotting up there. Agreed? So the spirit of Christmas was celebrated at 8824 with hanging a few Russian Easter eggs from a polished Manzanita branch which always adorns my dining room table. Today Lee's niece

Julie, visiting from Virginia with her whole family, gifted me this year's white house ornament, celebrating Calvin Coolidge. It is adorable and now competing for attention with the the Easter eggs. Plenty of Christmas parties paid yo yo with my waistline, but I found the Christmas sweaters and sweatshirts in the cedar chest at the foot of my bed still stretched over my widening waistline. The other holiday coverings, including a quilt I made of three untraditional wise men never emerged from the chest.

Christmas eve I went to a lovely dinner with friends here who had a white elephant exchange of gifts. Catherine was there (see photo) and I happened to draw her contribution to the exchange. It was filled with many of her Mom's tiny pin-on sweater decorations and many Christmas clip on earrings. Like me, Cath is trying to downsize. Well, I have been wanting to learn to make a wreath, so my goal this year is to make one and decorate it with all the miniature white elephants received. It will be a way of honoring Cath's birth mother and I can see her smiling now. 

Yesterday, Christmas day, I bought take out Chinese for two friends who also were alone. One is an ex-nun, one is a no-longer Jew, and then there is me. We laughed and laughed and told stories about our selves and our dysfunctional families. 

Some  of the stories were tragic, but we somehow found joy in sharing.
Pictures:Julie and Bonnie, Catherine and Bonnie,  Julie's husband Ray, and son Jordan, now working for a political research firm in D.C