The 2005 Holiday Season

Christmas (early) with Grandma Helena in Boston


On Tuesday, December 20th, after weeks and weeks of stressful crises at work interspersed with “regular” working days that don’t end until 9:00 at night, Robert finally took off from work at 5:30 to join his father, and his grandmother and me for our first Christmas celebration of the year.

We gave Grandma Helena a fresh green wreath that I had made at a Park Street women's Christmas breakfast and craft day. Though challenging to make, it turned out very nice.

We headed up to Lynn and after visiting a little at Grandma Helena’s apartment (and jumpstarting her car for her), we went to a gourmet (!) Chinese restaurant nearby. Grandma Helena loves shrimp, so in the festive spirit of the season we made it an all-shrimp meal: a shrimp tempura and avocado sushi roll, which she had for the first time and loved; some deep-fried crispy shrimp rings; the crispy aromatic shrimp; pan-fried noodles with shrimp and vegetables; and eggplant stuffed with shrimp in garlic brown sauce. Everything was delicious, and she got to go home with a few shrimp to eat the next day in case her meals-on-wheels lunch wasn’t as exciting as it could be. I had bought fortune cookies dipped in white chocolate and covered with red and green sprinkles as a fun, Christmassy dessert, so we ate them in the restaurant, making the other patrons as jealous as possible.

After dinner we went back to her apartment and exchanged Christmas presents; Grandma Helena got a large-print David Brinkly book, chocolates, earrings, and an Ann Taylor cashmere sweater in her favorite shade of aqua. She announced that this was the most fun she’s had since Thanksgiving, when we took her to dinner at Julien at the Hotel Langham downtown. Robert’s father drove us home around 11:00, at the end of a long, pleasant evening.

next-- Pre-Christmas Las Vegas Surprise


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Created: 01/19/06. Last Modified: 01/19/06.