Note from Stacey

Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukah! Festivities started yesterday for me. I had Mark over for lunch and made beef and asparagus stir-fry. Mark just got back from Nigeria and talked about his recent adventures, including witnessing a plane crash. Then Eva invited me over for dinner with her family. I helped her make won ton soup…mmm…so delicious! After dinner, Dave came over and we all had Howard’s special lemon cake and tea and exchanged some presents. This morning, I had a wonderful talk with my sister Denise, who enjoyed a White Christmas over in Latvia with her husband and two little girls. The girls were very excited about Santa’s visit…then Dave and I had a tasty breakfast of blueberry bagels with tomato, onion, avocado and cream cheese (yes, the doctor said I can “liberalize” my diet!) and then I set about to open a little mountain of packages from my mother. Thanks, Mom! Later in the afternoon, my Aunt Lorraine and I went to see a movie called Brokeback Mountain, a love scene between two cowboys set in Wyoming in the 1960’s. It was an interesting movie; realistic, but sad because of the struggles they faced. After the movie, Lorraine and I went out to dinner at a Chinese restaurant. It was a great meal. I ordered sweet and sour pork because it was my favorite dish that my mother used to on the holidays when I was a child. Stacey, from Belmont