Quote of the Day:
"Can Bobby fly?" -- Andrea

Journal of a Sabbatical

December 25, 1999

and so this is Christmas

Today's Reading: Winter from the Journals of Henry David Thoreau edited by H.G.O. Blake, From Ponkapog to Pesth by Thomas Bailey Aldrich, King Philip's War by Eric Schultz and Michael Tougias

After tree trimming last night, I drove Nancy home to Providence and settled in for a long winter's night of wrapping presents: Best Spiritual Writing of 1999 and Garry Wills' St. Augustine biography for La Madre, all three books of Philip Pullman's Sally Lockhart trilogy for Andrea, a black light and the latest Mariah Carey album for Lizzy, and two gray sweatshirts plus socks for Kevin. All adorned with gorgeous ornaments I bought in the gift shop at Blithewold (hey, if overindulgence in Christmas shopping can help save Blithewold, I'm all for it.) Nancy played some Coltrane on her new stereo for me (no way was I going to make her wait a week for the stereo when she knew I had it, so we set it up last weekend turntable and all). We tried to stay awake until midnight to see if Emily actually talked but we both fell asleep. Besides that, what would she say? "My real life is on the third floor" or "How come you never let me out?" or "Mmm, I love that tuna you put in with my thyroid medicine"?

Not having the skills to organize my way out of a paper bag, let alone a tri-state Christmas Eve, I had not got it together to pack breakfast supplies. We figured something on Hope Street would be open. The East Side is pretty ethnically diverse after all. We ended up waiting in line for an hour for breakfast at J. Elliott's, the only place open on Hope Street. Even the kosher deli is closed. Of course, that could be because it's Saturday. Duh. Then it's off to dinner and presents at La Madre's. Behind schedule already of course.

Last night's mystery of which Balkan country BiB is actually in was resolved by a phone call this morning. La Madre recaps the story so far for the kids: three feet of snow in Bosnia - none in Kosovo; presents in Bosnia - none in Kosovo. Bobby in Kosovo.

Andrea has been organizing the gifts under the tree into piles for each person. She has only found two small items with my name on them and thinks this is all there is, which troubles her. She thinks for awhile and then tells me BiB drew my name in the lottery and my presents are in Kosovo unable to get to Bosnia because of the snow. This turns out not to be true. It is a plausible explanation though. The kid is always thinking.

Thomas serves a dinner of green bean & onion ring casserole, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, turkey - also vegetarian stuffing for me, which is, as Andrea describes it "croutons and water". She decides to try some because I'm eating it. I hope she doesn't grow up thinking the height of vegetarian cuisine is salty croutons in water. I'll have to make one of my favorite curries for her some time. Anyway, the dinner was delicious. The mashed potatoes were the fluffiest ever and I can never get enough sweet potatoes. My guilty secret is that I have always loved that string bean & onion ring thing from the recipe on the onion ring can. Always. I used to request it on my birthday. Hey, everybody has some low cuisine comfort food item from the fifties that stays with them after their taste gets more sophisticated, right?

La Madre gave the kids the Geographica Atlas (hardcopy and CD-ROM). Andrea and I end up using it to find the best route from Pristina to Lukavac but we do not take into account not driving through Serbia. Andrea traces out possible routes with her finger, and then looks up at me and asks "Can Bobby fly?" I knew she meant in an airplane, but everybody cracked up anyway. I mean he is super-uncle but his powers do not include flight!

The kids took in quite a haul, and Andrea did not declare the books I gave her "unwanted" for once. I got the camera case and extra battery for the Mavica, which I wanted for my trip to Antarctica, and plenty of floppies to store all those penguin pictures. The kids asked a lot of questions about what kind of warm clothes I would need for Antarctica and how cold it was and where exactly was I going. They can look me up in the atlas I guess, and find the best route to Lukavac from Tierra del Fuego or something.

Nancy gave me the new book about King Philip's War, which I've been wanting to read, and I spent some time reading the section on the siege of Groton while the kids were playing with their gifts. Nancy also gave me a nice little paperback edition of Herman Melville's Typee , something else that's long been on my want list. La Madre gave me His Holiness the Dalai Lama's new book Ethics for the Millennium, and a book called In the Meantime by Iyanla Vanzant, which despite it's being number one on the New York Times bestseller list, I had never heard of. Looks to be some sort of spiritually oriented relationship self help book. The subtitle is "Finding Yourself and the Love You Want" so Nancy was momentarily frightened that my mother was suggesting I need a new girlfriend, but I think it's the "finding yourself" part that Mom focused on. I reassured Nancy that my mother likes her and does not think I need a new girlfriend. A job and a single family detached house (with washer and dryer in a dry basement) maybe, but not a new girlfriend.

Back at my house for a night of reading Thoreau's journal, which does not mention Christmas at all, and a night of wondering why my heat can't keep up. We're gonna hafta pile on the extra blankets tonight.