Please enjoy this California lemon, the first of the season from Olivia’s lemon tree.
Excerpts from the family group text on 12.25.25
Andrew: 5 minutes out from Sam’s.
Sam: Come in through the basement, my deck is icy.
Sam: Mom, please bring knives.
Olivia: Sam, do you believe in bath towels or do you just drip dry?
Sam: Yes, I have bath towels.
Olivia: So luxurious.
Andrew: Mum, can you bring some yeast, too?
Olivia: Christmas poppin’ off on the country roads.
Sam: You can tell you’re in Cogan Station when they become Busch light cans.
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Something I’ve always enjoyed about the holiday season is how different it can look from year-to-year, but remain a loving and fun time. This year was no exception.
Keith and I were thoughtful and intentional this year about making the most of the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas. We enjoyed dinners, lunches, and brunches out with friends, travel to favorite museums and markets, time out in nature, holiday lights at night, festive wreath making, the liturgy of Advent, and general good cheer and seasonal atmosphere.
In the midst of these fun activities, Keith found time to craft a wonderful new Christmas tree for our home. Over the years we’ve had real trees, fake trees, and live trees that were then planted in the ground. This year I wished for a tree that wasn’t real, dying, and shedding, neither did I want a fake tree, nor one to nurture along til spring planting. I wished for a tree upon which I could see and enjoy all our collected ornaments, with no laborious upkeep. What to do? I scanned the internet, nothing was quite right. I chatted with Keith, and a friend about creating a wooden tree with bare tree limbs and a natural finish. Keith went off to our woods and brought back a perfect white pine branch; he stripped, sanded, and finished it, drilled holes, placed dowels, and voila! The tree, I’m pretty sure, I’ve wanted for 30 years! My kids laughed at it, but I know they will fight over it when I’m dead.
Our family decided at Thanksgiving that we wouldn’t exchange gifts this Christmas. There was a simple wish to spend the day together enjoying each other’s company, good food, and tasty beverages. There was relief at not having to spend time and money tracking down particular gifts; this relief seemed to make space for more relaxed enjoyment of the day. It turns out that Christmas really can arrive without packages and bows. It’s people, conversations, laughter, and joy that make the day so special.
Olivia arrived from California on a Christmas Eve flight, Andrew and Leah drove down from Rochester on Christmas morning, my brother, Richard, turned up from his farm down the road, and we all gathered at Sam’s house out in the woods. Olivia even took the time (she was pretty fast, a little over an hour) to run the 8 miles across the country roads from our house to Sam’s to join the festivities.
The day unfolded with a sunny start, proceeded to time together, lots of talk, lots of laughter, a few tears, excellent food and memories made.
Wishing all our family and friends a merry and joy-filled holiday season.
The love of family radiated through your words. I could hear the laughter, feel the pride and embrace the respect and peace of the holiday. Ps. I love the tree!