Christmas

One of the nice things about having neglected the blog for so long is the fact that I have lots of good pictures to show. The first is Theo and Tiger at our Thanksgiving dinner (in Rye, with cousins; very elegant).

We are now learning to share. We were visited at Thanksgiving; Tiger's mother and brother had the pleasure at Christmas. As a result, this was the first Christmas in 29 years that we have not shared with Theo. As you can see, we proceeded to decorate the tree, a nostalgic pleasure as it is for everyone but in our case particularly so because we have a tradition of adding an ornament every year that we are at home--Roger is very good about labeling them. The usual rule is that the ornament has to reflect something of the year just past--there are a number celebrating Nantucket, a cable car commemorating a nice visit Theo and I had to San Francisco, and a variety of carved items from Africa. We even have a little Volkswagen in memory of our car that died on the way into Maputo the year Theo came to visit us in Africa.

But a Christmas with just the two also means you can do it exactly as you want. We planned a splendid dinner with good wine, casserole-roasted duck and a chocolate dessert so decadent that I felt guilty making it. The dessert is the chocolate bread pudding from Delia Smith's Winter cookbook; I suspect it could be done with a touch less butterfat--it's the point where you melt butter into heavy cream that struck a little note of fear. It was delicious but rich; Roger has stopped eating the leftovers but I have trouble resisting; I may need to throw out the final bit.

We were given wonderful Christmas table linens by Kathy, Tiger's mother; they can be seen in the picture. We forgot to go on a Christmas walk, which was a mistake after all that food.

I have to confess that our frugality has not extended to big things; we bought a flat screen TV, upgraded our cable subscription to match it, and as a result were able to watch some old Christmas movies when we wanted. We saw Holiday Inn, with Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire and a 1936 British version of A Christmas Carol which was very satisfactory. Holiday Inn was in general silly and fun--except for the fact that there was one song and dance sequence done in blackface, an uncomfortable reminder of how recently the world was different.

Rick Warren

I'm amazed at how much time is being spent discussing a prayer to be said at the inauguration when there are a whole lot of other topics related to Obama's choices that seem to me much more important. (For example, the Arab discomfort with Hillary's fierce loyalty to Israel and the chance that the confirmation of Eric Holder is going to be tough, just for starters). I still think that the addition of Warren is intended as including diverse points of view, not as insulting the loyal. But some of the Warren quotes I've read have been discouraging. I thought Frank Rich's column in today's Times was very good even though his conclusion is opposite from mine.