December 1-2, 2012: Natchitoches Festival of Lights
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This year, we are doing Christmas at Mario and Steve's house because Mario's mother and sister are in town for the holiday. Mario's father passed away just recently, and I suppose it was good for the two of them to leave Miami for a short while to be with Mario and Steve.

Fred, Steve, myself, Mrs. Tarradell and Mario

It was a cooperative Christmas meal; I did the ham (as usual) and a side or two, while Steve and Mario did the rest. It would have been a great time, were it not for the fact that Martika, Mario's sister, had gotten some sort of food-borne illness two days before, and was feeling too bad to get out of bed while we were there.

We did go in to greet her and wish her well, but that turned out not to have been such a great idea. The next day, Mario and his mother came down with the same thing and a day after that, Fred called me from home to say that he, too, had been stricken. When Martika began to get much better after a few days, we were pretty sure that the same would be in store for Mario and Fred, and, indeed, a few days later they, too, were much better. Steve and I, apparently, had led a charmed life that week.

We thank Steve and Mario for a very pleasant Christmas Day with them.

Greg and Me at Christmas

Since we hadn't gotten together with Greg on Christmas Day, we saved our own gift-opening for the next day when he could be with us. It is always nice to see Greg at the holidays; we have been friends for so long it would seem odd not to.

I might point out that for the first time in many years, Dallas had a "white Christmas," for we got a bit of snow on Christmas day. It was cold enough that it lasted into the next day, when Fred took this picture of the patio sculpture he made for me this year.

	December 1-2, 2012: Natchitoches Festival of Lights
	Return to the Index for 2012