...or the Feast of St. Stephen, Deacon Martyr. Christmas Day was very nice--comforting and family-oriented. Steve's (rootbeer1) brother David and his wife Andrea arrived from Tucson Friday afternoon. We hadn't seen them since the spring, and this was their first visit back to San Francisco since they moved to Arizona in October 2005. We headed to Oakland to have dinner with mutual friends and former co-worker Rose and Patrick, and had a great time scarfing down seafood and catching up.

Saturday we played canasta in the morning, something we really miss doing with D&A. In the afternoon, David and Andrea went off to visit more old friends and Steve and I napped, then went to dinner with John (keanubear), Greg and Tim (twnchicago). Good Mexican in West Portal. Then back to our place, when board games were played and I lounged on the sofa gazing at the Xmas tree with my glasses off (mmm---it's all Monet-y!).

Sunday we went to the Seal Rock Inn for breakfast, overlooking the crashing waves at Ocean Beach. Then a little nostalgic drive around the City, then home to rest and play more canasta. We watched some traditional Xmas videos, and Steve made pizza for dinner.

Christmas morning dawned bright with a thick blanket of snow covering the yard. Ha-HA! No, in San Francisco we have lovely flowers in bloom and greenery everywhere at Xmas, since it's really the beginning of spring here with the onset of the rain. There's a song I haven't heard before playing all the time on the radio:

It's Christmas once again in San Francisco
There is not a snowflake to be found
No sleigh rides, no snowmen
Like you see on the Christmas cards
Oh but we've got a lot of Christmas in our heart

Turns out it was written in 1995 by Barry DeVorzon, but he's also done versions for Las Vegas and San Diego.

We scampered down the stairs in our jammies, munched on some French pastries we had picked up the day before, and opened presents. Steve and I had set a $100 limit for each other this year (which we cheated a little on), but since everything we've been buying for the household except food since Thanksgiving has been wrapped up and put under the tree, there were lots of gifts to open. "Oh look, Santa brought us oven mitts! And toilet clenser!!" We all were very pleased with out gifties.

Around noon, Philip (foodpoisoningsf) joined us for a lovely Xmas brunch--fruit salad, scrambled eggs, bacon, bagels with cream cheese and smoked salmon, grilled panetone and more French pastries. We hung out and gabbed for quite a while, and then Philip left and we made phone calls, napped and played canasta. I borrowed my sister's tradition this year and made a big lasagna for dinner, with ground turkey and turkey pepperoni (so it's kind of seasonal) and a nice salad, annointed with the giant bottles of Green Goddess dressing that D&A brought us from the South. Chocolate cake and cheescake for dessert, then more canasta.

David and Andrea are here until Wednesday, so I'm sure we'll be playing more cards and eating more lasagna and chocolate and cookies and eggnog. Diets start in January.

We wish you all the happiest of holidays, and good things in the new year. As John (squalidbear) says, Bless!