Fa-La-La

Between me and Elizabeth, I got my house into presentable order. I love my artificial tree - it went up in minutes, and looked just fine undecorated as it has all the lights attached. Luckily, "The Princess Bride" was playing on TV, so I put it on while I decorated the tree. I try to limit any travel souvenirs to either an ornament or a coffee mug, so many of the ornaments hold special memories.

But through the day, more and more Knights of Knee reported, or were reported second hand, that they probably wouldn't make it. I began to have visions of just me and Rich and a bottle of Frizzante, like every night but with a cleaner house than usual.

And so 3 of us ended up at the walk - Krista and I met up with Carolyn. We were all agreeable to keep the walk short and so we strolled down to Old Town Sherwood to watch the tree lighting and to eat a free hotdog. Back to my house, Rachel joined us and the Larry and Nancy rolled in, with Nancy all dolled up in her mink jacket and lovely walking cast.

Rich allowed us to have a bottle of Frizzante, which all truly liked. You can buy it at Willamette Valley Vineyards. We enjoyed Krista's husband's secret-recipe deviled eggs, pasta salad from Rachel, edamame salad from Carolyn, artichoke parmesan dip and salmon spread from Nancy, and I provided chicken flautas, homemade guacamole, a pumpkin pie, and chocolate-covered fruit.

We had a lovely evening of talking and laughing.