Holiday stuff, so short

I should print this in red and green. Let's see how that looks. Well, not so bad.

Last night I had dinner with Stacey and Henry.  Henry is four years old, going on 14 in some ways.  We met at a very small trattoria in Petaluma and Henry ordered a salad. Not very many four year old kids order a salad.  First he ate all the bread that was given to the table, with salt and olive oil.  He loved it. When his salad arrived he did not want the chopped tomatoes or the pine nuts. Stacey pulled them off.  I ate the pine nuts.  (Hey, at $30 per pound, they were either going into my pocket or into my mouth. Mouth won. Yum.)  Henry then balked at eating the salad until Stacey bribed him. Then he ate almost all of it in three minutes.

Meanwhile, unknown to Stacey, he was totally making faces at a couple behind him, totally flirting (in the way that only a four year old kid can) with the woman at that table.  She was beguiled. Henry, after 5 minutes, lost interest, obviously because she was too easy to beguile.  (This is not a slight on women, just an example of how a four year old kid can entice and then be done with that.)

Stacey and I had a lovely dinner and a lovely dessert and it was so nice to be there with Stacey and Henry. 

Today I drove to Sacramento to see my Mom.  Without too much discussion of that, it was difficult.  But Mom asked about Sam!  I precipitated the conversation by telling her about the above dinner (always trying to find something to talk about, of course) and she remembered that I watched Sam for two days a week for about six months when he was small.  She remembered that and so we had a little conversation about Sam, how he is soon to be six years old and wise in the ways of six year old boys and I told her a bit about what six year old boys are into now.  Mom was happy to hear all of it, but then sad and she said "I miss all that. All that running around and their faces when they are small."

Ah, well. 

Happy Holidays to everyone who reads this. Enjoy.  Be kind, have some joy.  Families are often difficult but you don't want to miss much of it. Christmas is short. Smile. Nod. Say "yes" a lot and have some more of that wine. Or eggnog. It's once a year, and thus easy to do.

I love you more.

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