How I Spent My Spring Vacation

I’m sitting in my new black-and-white bathing suit beside the pool at The Intercontinental, San Juan, with five other similarly attired women. We are talking about books. It isn’t just the palm trees, sunshine, the warmth of the Caribbean sun (particularly after this winter), or the ocean breezes making this lush setting a paradise; it is the company and conversation. I feel alive, maybe even a bit smarter than I’ve felt in a long time. My daily reality and shortcomings have been suspended and I am one of the six accomplished people on this reunion.

Every year at this time I fly to Puerto Rico to spend time at a beach resort with my former college roommates. For at least a few hours before the wine starts pouring freely, I feel somehow a bit sharper than usual. We each grab our current reading material, both in hard cover and e-book formats, and gather around the pool, some in the sun and some under an umbrella and tree. We talk, read, snack, and take dunks in the pool when we get too warm.

The books we are reading are a big part of the conversation, along with what movies and shows we’ve seen, what our kids are doing, and some memories of the past.  Even when the subject of the books changes, someone will always bring it back up, whether because she has also read that book or has just seen someone else walk by carrying a book with a familiar title. The hot books of the year are in everyone’s hands and it’s sometimes funny to see someone reading WILD, when that was so two years ago. I was more current, since I had just finished ALL THE LIGHT YOU CANNOT SEE, and was starting THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN. I wanted to know what everyone else was reading as they lay on the chaises on the blue-and-white striped towels handed out along with a color-coded arm band to provide proof that we are paying guests.

I also wanted recommendations as to what book I should read next. One person was reading REDEPLOYMENT and suggested THE MUSEUM OF EXTRAORDINARY THINGS.  Another mentioned AMHERST as well as BLOOD FEUD.  Several highly recommended THE INTERESTINGS, especially since it struck a chord with some of the women. I also heard good things about KILL CHAIN, LOVING FRANK, HUSH, and THE THING AROUND YOUR NECK. I have a lot of reading ahead of me.

A few of the people who attended the reunion have been doing so for as long as fifteen years, some more sporadically. Depending on who attends, the sleeping arrangements can get interesting. One year I met a woman just as I was assigned to share a king-sized bed with her. Luckily, it all worked out, and we didn’t even wake each other up on our numerous nocturnal trips to the bathroom.

While there are several things to do in the surrounding area, we rarely do any of them, basically because we’ve been there, done that. The goals of the weekend might be different for each of us, some love the sun bathing, some the relaxing getaway from everyday life and the time to snooze and read, but talking to old friends is the part of the weekend that makes the memories. We make some new friends, too, as friends of friends are invited, and I discovered some people sitting near us who know one of my oldest friends from high school. We first met the woman last year because she was attracted by our poolside canasta playing and mah jongg games.

For a few moments every year a few of us head to the beach, often to take long walks, although not this year, as I had sprained my ankle on some ice a few weeks earlier. But the waves are wonderful to play in, even when they knock me down and my roommate from forty-five years ago has to pull me up. The bonus was that the jewelry lady who stands near the entryway had something I wanted on her table. The trinkets she sells are inexpensive but some look surprisingly good. I bought a nice necklace for only twenty dollars. I consider it a bargain, but for some reason my husband thinks it cost a lot more, because he adds in the cost of the trip.

This year we were only six people so it was much easier than in the past for us to squeeze into a taxi when we needed to go to a terrific tapas restaurant across from a lively casino where some of us even made a little money.

In recent years the trip has become a memorial to a woman who came every year. She and I went all through school together from elementary school through college. Oddly, her birthday and the anniversary of the day she died are both during the yearly trip to Puerto Rico weekend, and we always remember her and miss her.

I’m only home a day and glad to get back to my normal, if somewhat mundane, life. But our trip organizer is already encouraging us to make reservations for next year. I probably should—I know I can’t wait to go.

Resolutions, Grand Plans and Good Intentions–Oh My!

Ends of years seem to be a time for assessing the past and making plans for the future. Many of us take the opportunity to decide whether to do more of the same or change gears altogether.

Often it’s a little of both.

Making resolutions seems to be a requirement but how often do the best intended resolutions fall at the first hurdle.

Grand plans are all good — until we let them turn into burdens we are only too glad to abandon. And that in turn turns its wicked head into guilt that we didn’t keep a promise we had made to ourselves.

I think our foremothers and forefathers had a better idea for the best use of this time of year. In very ancient times, the Romans (and people of many other civilizations) gathered together and celebrated life and the many blessings of having survived the year.

In Celtic societies, bonfires kept the long nights of winter at bay. In more recent times, fires were transformed into lights on trees and now, thousands of lights on houses.

This evening, as I gathered with friends, we traveled through row upon row of houses lit from front gate to chimney top with festive lights, reminiscent of National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. When I was small, my family drove to the other side of the city to see the Christmas trees and holiday lights decorating the homes of San Francisco’s wealthiest residents.

To me, this was a gift of sharing the joyous season. Our tree was not as grand but the meaning was the same. The sense that, as a community, we shared this season as a time of merriment and hope.

Velesé Vánoce. 聖誕節快樂 Nadolig Llawen. מערי ניטל

Շնորհավոր Սուրբ Ծնունդ. Buon Natale. 메리 크리스마스 Joyeux Noël.

Wesołych Świąt. Feliz Navidad. メリークリスマス С Рождеством.

Merry Christmas to all!

Traditions to Pass Along

For nearly 300 years, Americans have celebrated a family event called Thanksgiving. In countries around the world, some form of ‘thanksgiving’ is celebrated at this time of year - the Fall - in gratitude for a good harvest and a hope for continuing good fortune in the coming darker days of winter. Most of these are linked to religious festivals.

The American version of Thanksgiving is unique because the celebration crosses all ethnic, religious and cultural groups as a family celebration. For many of us, it is a major family get-together, celebrating the creation of this country. Thanksgiving Day became a recognized national holiday in the later part of the 19th Century. During the Amerian Civil War, Abraham Lincoln encouraged Americans to gather together to give thanks for the bounty of our freedoms.

In my family, my mother began her efforts days before the fourth Thursday of the month, making fudge, stuffing dates, decorating the house, ironing table cloths and napkins. We were (and still are) a large family. Until late in her life, my mother was the sole cook, hostess and bottle-washer. We young ones eventually stuffed the dates, mixed the fruit salad, prepared the stuffing (always made from scratch). But Mom was the only one of us who made the Parker House Rolls.

I have never been able to match my mother's rolls, though I have mastered the stuffing and my basted turkeys are well-received. My husband is the king of the stuffed dates and one of my daughters-in-law has conquered the pumpkin pie.

This year, our celebrations will be very different because my husband and I are living far from our family. I know that many of my fellow writers on the Classic and Cozy Books blog are amazing gourmet cooks and have treasured family recipes they may be sharing but I wanted to share one that is always a big hit with adults and children alike.

This is also simple and great for children to participate in the preparations of this wonderful family event.

STUFFED DATES

1 package (or more) of dates (pitted is easier but not necessary: the pits separate from the fruit without much effort)

Cream Cheese, Peanut Butter, Hazelnut Chocolate Butter and/or other favorite creamy spread (Cookie Butter Cream, anyone?)

Open each date and drop a ½ teaspoon or so (personal taste is the final determinant!) of any of the above spreads into the center of the date.

Arrange decoratively on a pretty plate and try to get them to the family before they disappear.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all and best wishes for a joyful Christmas season too.

© 2014 Photographs, Leigh Verrill-Rhys, taken in Wales