Christmas at my sister’s turned out nice, and it is so gratifying when your cooking turns out well — especially when you’re an untalented cook. Everyone stayed away from dangerous subjects like politics (we are a mixed family, although nearly all blue/lefty) and everyone behaved herselves. The sister hosting us all has a lovely house and lots of land. My oldest sister and her husband are really happy in retirement, never setting an alarm clock again, they said. She was a nurse, and her husband was most recently a judge. Now he golfs, watches hockey and football; she takes line dancing class. I’m not clear on what kind of dancing this is, but it’s not country western. Whatever it is, there’s a big competition in it next year in Las Vegas (where they lived, previously).


No snow here either, just like Fredo’s. For this holiday I had a sudden urge to cook fudge for the first time, because I wanted to give everyone something sweet other than cookies they could take home, and found a really easy recipe that includes marshmallow fluff. It’s rather soft, and very good.


I’m making a resolution to do more things I enjoy, because it’s been such a yucky and sad year. The holiday planning was good for me, and now I feel like getting into more projects. I hope everyone has good holidays.