Saturday, December 26, 2009

More Zoë Christmas fun

Peg and I have had a running joke for years that the longer we're married, we're one year closer to wearing matching track suits. You know, old couples wearing matching sweat pants and tops, cruising the mall... so our daughter decided to make an "old parents" ornament. We laughed really hard when we opened her gift.

Also for your enjoyment... the running of the bulls at Pamplona--uh, the running of the child down the hall while decorating the tree.

Tonight we'll play some Scrabble and try some exercises from the book, "Drawing on the right side of the brain." If we get too rowdy, I hope nobody calls the cops.

Friday, December 25, 2009

This year's Christmas is "in tents"





When we go camping, Zoë bails on the cabover camper and pitches a tent out back. She's been stuck with our six-man tent, so for Christmas we gave her a two-man REI tent... that she wants to sleep in tonight in our back yard. It'll get down to the low 30's, and she's got a good mummy bag, so she'll be all snuggly.

Last night Peg's sister Jeanette and her husband, Greg, had us over for a great vegetarian Christmas Eve dinner. Our nephew Jon's girlfriend, Maki, played her sitar for us after dinner and invited us to try it. I've got a serious jones for the thing... I suspect there's a sitar in my future. Far more interesting and intriguing than the bass guitar I played briefly (and badly) a few years ago.

The hallway photo shows a family tradition... before we string the lights on the tree, we run them all the way down the hall into Zoë's room.

Best Christmas present of all, and it almost goes without saying, is having Peg with us and healthy. She doesn't have eyebrows or any other flavor of hair, but is absolutely full of piss and vinegar. As I write this, she and Zoë are laughing and playing "Hearts" on our bed. Best Christmas "music" ever.

Sunday, December 20, 2009

The holidays: medical and merriment



Medical

Peg gets her abdominal port yanked out on the 28th (that's the chemo port that went straight into her belly-- the one near her collarbone worked so much better it was only used once, in July). It's a wee little gizmo like a wine cork, just under the skin. The procedure is in the hospital, but they'll just do a "Whoa, where am I... and who am I" light anesthetic and she'll be out of la-la land in a half an hour.

Still looking for hair to sprout. A watched pot never boils.

Merriment

Now for the merriment: last night we saw the Sacramento Master Singers perform their annual Christmas show in a grand, old Catholic church downtown, something we always really enjoy. This year they also featured Mary Youngblood (center of the circle), a two-time Grammy winner and wonderful native american flutist. If you get a chance to hear her, even on a CD, it will make your hair stand up on end. Same for the Master Singers... they hit a crescendo while singing "hallelujah" that had me having a near out-of-body experience. As a prelude to this wonderful concert, Zoë and I saw "Avatar" in IMAX 3D. Astonishing. Run, do not walk, to see this movie.

Greg and Jeanette (Peg's sister and her husband) are having a small solstice gathering tomorrow night, and they're hosting us for Christmas Eve dinner; Peg's a lot stronger, but not up to hosting a dinner. Spending New Year's with dear friends the Andre family, who we met 12 years ago through an interesting story I'll tell you sometime and with whom we've had many fine adventures.

And we have yet to score a Christmas tree. I see from Peg's cousin Diane's comment on the last post she has a connection with a guy who has good smelling ones. This old dog's gonna give her a call in the morning.