holidaze

nothing like xmas in california: the family service on xmas eve in a lutheran church was presented as a birthday party for baby jesus and everyone was given a noise-maker as we entered and asked at a couple of points to make as much noise as possible.

leaving the church, a woman with a little girl about tamara's size chatted us all up a bit and then said, "well, it looks like tamara has two very nice mothers." "Thanks, but we're grandmothers," we said.

other highlights included an abbreviated performance of "the nutcracker," which i found a little disappointing. tamara liked it well enough, but my standards were formed back in the '70s in detroit, when rebecca rossen started her dance career. First she was a mouse in the nutcracker, and moved on to performing as a child (the san jose ballet had adult dancers as the children, a big mistake) and look at her now: a professor of performance at the university of texas. 

we also had a visit with marilyn symmes and her mother jean, meeting them at stanford, where marilyn was an undergraduate and jm a grad student. stanford's lauded campus is so large and so lavish and so heavily monumental in a sort of missionary romanesque mode that it is almost oppressive. jean symmes has written and published two novels, a one act play, and is working on a historical novel set in england in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. needless to say, i'm impressed. and, perhaps, inspired.

tamara was so excited about the gifts santa had left in her stocking that she danced around in circles. there were plenty of presents and a turkey and champagne and some wonderful sweets made by aekyong's friend tina, and several trips sponsored by jm to the gelato emporium in downtown campbell. a visit to the apple store was disappointing; they can't sell the iphone there.

i don't understand why this is all underlined and can't seem to get rid of it. sorry, folks.