Jingle & mingle ALL THE WAY

MICHELE A’COURT’S LOADING UP HER SLEIGH AND HEADING OFF TO THE RELLIES

In a year when you have to take your certainty where you can find it, I’m inordinately excited at the prospect of Christmas. We have a plan and I like it a lot – tootling south to join family and friends for a couple of days. I will be a guest, not a hosta rarity for me in the last 25 years – though I will be joyfully contributing my signature Christmas dish. So picture us, if you will, driving down with an enormous bowl of cherry-sherry trifle strapped in with a seatbelt on the backseat of the car. Let’s pray for no sudden stops on State Highway 2 this Christmas Eve.

So much has gone wrong this year – holidays cancelled, work lost, expectations upended – I feel less pressured about making things turn out ‘right’. I used to fuss and fret about getting the gift shopping done in a reasonable time, and got all hot and bothered over menu choices and coordinating the cooking times for the steamed asparagus and the glazing of the ham, while also keeping glasses topped up and saying the right kind of ooh and ahh as people opened their presents.