Our Spaceship of Love in the Dark

Merry Christmas and Notes on our Visit to the Pacific Northwest

Time for a latte, a fluffy gingerbread cookie and a bit of writing this morning in anticipation of everyone waking up in about an hour. I’m so thankful to each of you for subscribing to this newsletter that I’ve been writing for almost 3 years. Thank you!

This morning I’m back in Washington State to be with family for a short Christmas break. It’s dark outside. San Francisco is a straight 800 miles south from where we are near Puget Sound but it’s like going from a citrus farm down to a rainy, velvety deep blue garden near the water.

When we were living in the little blue house, Mike and I would remark with amazement at how still and quiet our urban neighborhood was in spite of being only 5 miles from Seattle’s downtown. One time we sat down at the kitchen table with the kids around dinnertime, and since there were no curtains we remarked at the velvety blackness that surrounded our home, a dark void that only the one or two streetlights and Christmas lights on the gutters of our neighbor’s homes could pierce. “We’re in a spaceship”, I would tell the kids when they were little.

Friends

I was reminded about how delightfully slow-talking yet social people can be in the Pacific Northwest on the way to our rental home in our rented Silverado. “Going Home for the Holidays” has a brief, temporary feel to it this year but it’s all about being together and braving the chaos of maintaining close relationships in spite of distance.

We invited a slew of friends over to have dinner the first evening we arrived, and on the way from the airport I had a conundrum deciding on Pagliacci Pizza’s party vs banquet salad sizes. I called a number (a salad and pizza hotline, really), and a person with sonorous voice said “well…do your have one or two friends that are big salad eaters? Or do they just have a forkful or two? Here’s a pro tip…” I wound up having a 10 minute conversation with the very talkative and super-informed employee that calmly talked me through all of my party ordering worries and made me laugh a few times. Mike asked me if I’d be running away with my new boyfriend (he was possibly jealous that I shushed him twice during this detailed discussion) but after I hung up I I told him it was just a short fun fling with a food-loving friend.

Our guests arrived around 5 after we had just finished picking out who would go in what room. Here are just some of the things that contributed to a wonderful night:

• That delightful feeling when you see two of your long-time friends bond with two other long-time friends that never met each before and instantly have chemistry and bond over music and can’t stop talking

• Lots of excited kids running around, playing hide and seek in the various rooms, closets and the lookout at the top of the house

• Pro tip - we asked everyone to bring drinks (whatever they wanted!) and it took away so much stress to have water, soda, juices, and adult beverages show up and know that was taken care of without too much hauling and guessing.

A lovely wreath with a sunshine ribbon in San Francisco

Family

This year’s Christmas means a lot to us because of the recent illness of my mother. Getting together on Christmas Eve yesterday was something we looked forward to for months because we just wanted to celebrate life and love and being together after a huge scare and a lot of stress and hard work.

I was going to write something about my kids making a Bûche De Noël—but Leila and I forgot to get the ingredients for it while shopping at PCC for most of the food for two days.

I would write about how amazing dinner was - but my nemesis for this year’s Christmas Eve dinner was lettuce. My drama with this baby red-leaf lettuce began in the store when the deep pockets in the lettuce leaves would leak water from the bottom of a plastic bag that apparently had a hole in it. It then leaked on groceries in on the way home, and while I washed it (not carefully enough!) there was a wee bit of grit that took away from every other positive attribute of the salad. No salad spinner or dedicated lettuce-washer (and drier). Then the potatoes - the mashed potatoes that my Mom and Grandma so diligently peeled were then creamed with a stick blender when I realized there was no potato-masher. The consistency was similar to the smooth swoosh of potatoes you’d get at the bottom of a plate of steak in a quality French restaurant, but when Leila instantly realized that I had used some of the goat cheese from our afternoon cheese plate in the potatoes, eyebrows were raised and my experiment was.. not a failure, but perhaps next year we’ll stick with our very tried-and-true pierogies and fish.

But what else will I remember?

• My Mom laughing at the robber’s faces getting bashed by paint cans while we watched Home Alone.

• Our dog, Maven, finding every way to take up as much space as possible on a very large couch.

• Mike and Zane looking dapper and coordinated in their cheerful plaid shirts.

• Leila conducting music while her brother danced

• My white-haired Grandmother napping in some brief sunshine in the bright, windowed lookout at the top of the house in her bright red knit hat.

Hope and Light

While we’re in this new, temporary spaceship house for just another day and night, I feel the peace and light of hope coming from inside this small space. It’s 7:35AM, and the sky is *just* beginning to brighten outside. My Mom just woke up. There is life to come.

I hope you have a wonderful day. Merry Christmas!