Christmas Day

Roast duck, bread dumplings, cranberry sauce, pickled cabbage, carp and potato salad (left over from Christmas eve), pickled mushrooms, Italian mozarella di bufallo, mousse au chocolat, marzipan stolle from Germany, Christmas cookies, English Christmas cake (home-baked for the thirtieth time in a row), pineapple from Panama, mandarins from Spain, perfectly round tomatoes from green houses, pears from the local market and avocados from god knows where; Porto, beer, green tea, sparkling rose wine, Roibus tea, herb tea from Crete (a present from a neighbor who's been there recently), and more...too much food and drink for a single day to eat and not enough people here to eat it.

Where are those days when food scarce, fresh fruit hard to come by and presents modest? We even used to save wrapping paper from one year till next.....there were always about eight to ten people at the table, there was closeness and quiet joy which can't be bought, and confidence we'd always stay together. But we didn't.....