THE NEVER ENDING CHRISTMAS!!!

For most of you, Christmas came and went. For me, I'm still celebrating! I have a wonderful ex-mother-in-law who invited me over for Christmas dinner on Monday. Here she is with her beautiful Christmas tree and her companion, Tinker Bell, the sweetest Rat Terrier. You can't see the star at the top of the tree, but it's a beautiful stainglass-looking star that Tish says is even older than her children who are my age, 60.

Although her son and I divorced in the mid-70's, she and I still continue to get together throughout the year. For dinner she made ham, deviled eggs, two types of congealed salads, one with black cherries and one with mandarin oranges, chili, a swiss cheese bread, chili cashews, ranch oyster crackers, stuffed celery with homemade pimento cheese, olives, homemade guacamole salad with chips, and, a delicious drink with cranberry juice, ginger ale and orange juice. For dessert I had my choice of cheese cake, pecan pie or cherry pie. I had the cheese cake. Tish is a remarkable cook even though she lost her sense of taste over twenty years ago.

For every holiday, Tish decorates her table appropriately. So the table looked so festive. You can see how very colorful it was. She also gave me a beautiful blouse in hues of blues. I'm going to wear it tonight when we get together for dinner and the movie, War Horse.

Speaking of movies, I've been to see The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and also the new Sherlock Holmes movie. Both of them are really good. I read the book for the first movie and they changed the ending a little, but Daniel Craig is so good as the journalist and Rooney Mara gives an amazing performance as the girl. I've watched both the Swedish version (sub-titled) and this one, and the lead actress in both does such an incredible job playing the part of a young woman with a difficult past trying to make her way in the world when it seems as if the whole world is against her. The new Sherlock Holmes movie was really good, in fact, I believe I enjoyed it even more than the first. I still love the interaction between Robert Downey, Jr., and Jude Law. What made this one a little more interesting was a piece I heard on NPR about the actor playing the role of Prof. Moriarty, Jarrod Harris. He happens to be the son of Richard Harris, A Man Called Horse, and played Albus Dumbledore in the first two Harry Potter movies. Go see them both, you won't be disappointed.

See you at the movies!!!! Until then...