Ah, December!

December is a time for many, many things. It's a big holiday season. Food surrounds us and is our friend the entire month. Never mind the bitter recriminations come January 1st - holiday calories don't count!!!

To that end, we've had a huge holiday luncheon at work, but there is a group of ladies who have become special friends at work and last year we started a holiday lunch tradition (can it be a tradition if you've only done it twice?). This year, our number was down by two. Tasha was out sick with a kidney stone and Erica had another commitment, but the remaining five of us went to Fusion for a fabulous lunch and lots of laughs!

Betsy made each of us earrings! Jennifer concocted special hot chocolate!

Suzanne brought sparkly umbrellas for our drinks! Kim gave us all gorgeous owl ornaments!

What did I do? Um... I showed up! Seriously, these ladies rock Christmas - and I never seem to get it together enough to show them all just how special they are and how much I think of them. Perhaps I should start preparing for this in July... Anyway, lunch was great and the company even better and we all left feeling quite festive!

Tis also the season of the grade school chorus presentations. ZBoy was in fifth grade chorus this year and I think he actually enjoyed it.

The parents and shiny, happy grandmas gathered in the cafeteria and found seats. One of ZBoy's classmate's mothers (Donna) came and sat next to me. She looked a bit tired and I asked after her. As it turns out, her husband has been in the hospital for three weeks with pancreatitis - and things are not getting better. He's also had reactions to CTscan dye and a couple of infections. It's going to be a different kind of Christmas for her family. Oh, how I can relate! We had a different kind of Thanksgiving.

We sat there and admired all the kids. Such a handsome lot - even if mine did look a bit like a homeless kid, having stretched out his waffle knit henley so that the whole shirt sagged. I heard a sigh next to me. Donna said, "Aren't they beautiful? Look how diverse! Black, white, asian, hispanic, indian - we have the whole world here in our cafeteria. That's why we're here, you know. I love the diversity and my boy doesn't feel at all strange here (he's half Mexican). I laughed. That's one of the reasons we moved to this school zone. I didn't want my boy going to a school that was mostly black or mostly white. I wanted a good mix of people because that's what the world is.

This little girl is a good friend of Z's. We became special buddies during a field trip last year when I chaperoned and she got very sick. I kept her close and took care of her during the trip and we've been friends ever since. Z had a little crush on her last year, but this year they are JUST friends. I thought she looked very cute in her outfit. Z did too.

Gotta love little kids singing in a group. Some of them give it their all, and some of them are just moving their mouths. And some, like mine, do a little of both.


December is also big for birthdays in my family. Two brothers and a cousin all have their birthdays in the span of 6 days. James is in New York and we wished him a good birthday from afar, but Jerry is right here! Of course, we have to celebrate!

Mom and Dad took us all out to dinner at a local steak house.

Jerry is growing his hair out for locks of love. He has the most gorgeous hair ever. I think he got my hair, because my own hair isn't nearly as lovely as his!!! And Mom was there, rocking the biker chick look. She looked fabulous in her Greek fisherman's hat, black sweater and big jewelry!

Yes... there was cake. But there wasn't a five, so Jerry's cake had a 4 - 2 - 3 on it. After a moment of puzzlement, we realized... 2+3=5 - so the cake really had a 45 on it. Of course, such subtleties were lost on the drunk guy at the next table, who stood up and loudly proclaimed that Jerry was the best-looking 423-year old guy he'd ever seen.

ZBoy was very excited though. A great dinner, wonderful company and chocolate cake to top it all off!