Whirlwind holidays

While 2008 was a grim year on many fronts, especially the economy, the end of 2008 brought a wonderful whirl of joyful activities and celebrations and for our family three big events: Madeleine's starting college at Wellesley, the completion of Barney's garage project, in which many family members and friends participated in building our new garage, and the completion of the lullaby CD, "Lullay My Sweet One", recorded with Shira Kammen and friends from Revels under the name The Bungalow Ensemble, and released in December 2008. The CDs are available at www.cdbaby.com. 

The arrival of the actual CDs (in cardboard instead of plastic cases and with recycled plastic inserts) came just a few days before Madeleine returned from Wellesley, and began a month of festivities. We opened Revels on the 12th, the day the CDs arrived, and the show was happily successful - and as we featured one of the show's songs on the CD, we were able to sell some to the audience as well. Madeleine saw the show with Barney, did makeup backstage, danced at the cast party, and - for the first time - was allowed to attend the after-party, for adults only. Since she was no longer in the teen cast, she attended and really enjoyed it ... more singing, food, drinks, singing, etc. We arrived home about 3am. 

While Madeleine was at school this fall, we felt like something big was missing from our lives - our daughter. Once she was back, everything felt "right" again. The first few days were a blaze of her seeing friends also returned from college, and preparing for the family Christmas. On the 23rd we hosted what apparently has now become our traditional caroling party - about 40 friends including folks from Revels and her high school friends with an enormous potluck and lots of singing. We went around the neighborhood singing carols, and with the experienced singers in the group we sounded quite good, I must say. People stopped their cars on the street to listen to us, and neighbors came out to ask for songs. One neighbor dialed her mother in Wisconsin on her cellphone so she could hear us sing. We sang in the vestibule of an upscale local restaurant, Oliveto - the diners seemed quite delighted. There is something about the fellowship and sisterhood of singing together that just seems truly happy to me.  I felt so fortunate to enjoy singing and celebrating with such wonderful folks.

For Christmas, we hosted Barney's parents, brother and sister-in-law, and had a lovely day together. We made a lovely leg of lamb roasted for 7 hours, preceded by some pate, olives and nuts and various amuse-bouche, and accompanied by a persimmon-hazeln

ut fall greens salad, green beans with walnuts, a squash-cranberry dish from my sister-in-law, and finished with our family's traditional Bûche de Noël and my mother-in-law's apple crisp.  Madeleine has become the queen of the Bûche now, it is one of "her"dishes, and in January she taught it to my sister-in-law and niece.

This year found us doing more activities than I ever recall in the past - in part because Madeleine's time home was short, so Barney and I planned things to do with her, like seeing the wonderful "Arabian Nights" at Berkeley Rep, and a New Year's dinner at Wood Tavern. We did more feasting and singing and even a Mummer's play at Hildreth and Chas' New Year's Day party. Mads and I went ice skating at Embarcadero Center - whenever I skate I remember the countless hours we spent skating as kids, something Madeleine did not get to do living in California, though she took my ice skates back with her to Wellesley. Madeleine and I enjoyed the Yves St Laurent exhibit at the DeYoung Museum with her childhood friend Nathalie and Nathalie's mom, Nancy, followed by Madeleine hosting a cooking party at our place for the 8 girls from her high school cooking party group. It was such a delight to see the girls again - they had certainly matured and grown up in subtle ways, but in other ways they still seemed like the same girls we've known for years. While our kitchen is small, I think they enjoy cooking here because I have always been happy to have Madeleine and her friends cook, do arts and crafts, or any kind of messy project here. Madeleine and Barney and I did a day-long workshop with Shira Kammen of Twelfth Night music, which was great fun, followed by a dinner with our friend Barbara Phillips. In 2007, we did a Medieval music, dance and cuisine workshop at her cultural center in France, Latitude (www.latitude.org). Throughout this time Madeleine had various get-togethers with friends, re-connecting and then parting again.

Toward the end of Madeleine's visit, we hosted a belated 50th birthday party for me to coincide with the official launch of the lullaby CD. Almost 100 folks attended, enjoyed Jonathon Moon's delicious food, danced to music by Shira Kammen and Charlie Hancock called by Erik Hoffman, which got almost everyone dancing the contra dances. The Bungalow Ensemble performed four pieces from the CD as well, which were well-received. Nancy, a friend from Revels. wrote wonderful new lyrics about me to a Revels drinking song, which the entire group sang to me after a glorious rendition of Happy Birthday. I thought to myself that this must be what heaven feels like: beautiful music, surrounded by people you love, singing and dancing and feasting and enjoying each other's company.

Our last family activity as skiing at Yosemite, staying at Barney's family cabin in Groveland. There had been little snow lately, so it was quite icy, and we all had minor-to-moderate injuries of various sorts. We did enjoy an interesting Chef's Holiday dinner at the Ahwahnee, which included some fascinating cooking demonstrations, and where we met some friendly people who enjoy cooking as much as we do. After we returned, it was a day of packing and helping Madeleine prepare to return to Wellesley.  We have had so much fun this past month. And then it was back to the airport, and once again standing by the security line, waving goodbye, both of us tearing up, watching her go. When she leaves, she never looks back - she told me once if she did she would burst out crying. For us, no such limitation, and the tears flowed copiously. We miss her so much. Fortunately this week was filled with the excitement of the inauguration and preparing to teach a tiramisu class and perform in a Robert Burns 250th birthday concert on Sunday. Next week will be quiet ... and harder for both me and Barney.