Is this heaven? No, it's the holidays.

What you see depends on where the light hits.

PREFACE: THIS WAS WRITTEN ON 12/17/2009 (many, many milestones ago in a galaxy far away).

Old people always say that time goes faster the older you get. By the speed of the last three weeks, I project that I am somewhere around 90. If you've been following the blog, you'll have noticed that I have been absent about three weeks. I have had a social life since then and have been trying to reinvent Christmas on Muchmore.

To this point, everyone's worries about me being lonesome have been highly over estimated. The weekends have been booked. The boys were here for Thanksgiving, then Rosemary Mueller the week after, and Mom last weekend. So as not to chance any free time leaving me an opportunity to miss the Lexington St. Christmas house, I hosted my first holiday party the night before Mom came in. 20 of my staff and significant others came over to break in my tree and carry forward the appetizer and toasting competitions. No caroling. I'd planned a get together of the small beginnings of my Cincy social circle--but after an unplanned business trip to Washington for the Green and Safe Jobs Workshop, I abandoned those plans. It took out the week before Christmas and I really needed that weekend before coming back to Wisconsin for Christmas with friends and family.

It was odd decorating a strange place at Christmas. I've always considered the McFarland house magical at Christmas. There never seemed to be a Christmas that didn't look right. Muchmore looked nice but not magical. Next year I will have a sense of what worked this year and what was missing. Same with the outside. I hope that next year there will be baby pines to white light and lights up and down the drive. All said, it was pretty. The pictures below give you an idea of how it looks.

Grand Times with "Grossmary"

As she has during other great times of change in my life, Rosie Mueller anticipated the need to distract me from the inevitable grief of leaving my McFarland holiday house, boys, and friends. Early in the fall, she announced she was coming out to start a new holiday tradition--Christmas in Cincy. It has all the initial signs of greatness — exceeded expectations, minor league swearing, inappropriate comments, lots of food, music and a touring Broadway show. AND gifts! As has become my routine, I drove her to the sights...Mt. Adams, Playhouse on the Park, past Framptons, and from Kentucky at twilight. We even dined at the National Exemplar. I bought tickets to the Saturday matinee of "Chicago" starring Tom Wopat. The big band opened for him two years ago in Oregon, WI and he's a high school buddy of drummer, Dave Heileman--so I went up to say "hi" after the show. Small world. We opened presents with the glee of little girls. Below is a shot of Rosie before theatre and a dramatic shot of me in the peacock wrap hat and green cashmere scarf among my gifts.

I taught Rose to play cribbage and to our surprise we stayed up until 1am Saturday morning. She left on Sunday afternoon with promises to return next summer and leaving her stocking behind for next Christmas.

The Muchmore Way

Lest anyone think that my penchant for excess has been appeased by a "new" house, new job, and moving, set your mind at rest. Last week was classic Donna. Wall-to-wall meetings, coming home after a 9-10 hour day and then staying up until 1am to cook for branch party. Tuesday night I had to adapt my UW Green Bay presentation on the milennial generation for presenting at my first division All Hands meeting. I was told just to give what I'd done in GB. Easier said than done. The first talk was 1 hour to an audience of academics teaching in a university setting. The All Hands spot was for 15-20 minutes to an audience of epidemiologists, toxicologists, industrial hygienists, and health communication people. I edited and rebuilt the powerpoint for 3 hours. I felt prepared and confident. Evidentally, I hit pay dirt. Lot's of contact in the halls with colleagues, requests for the powerpoint, and questions. The division director asked me to send the powerpoint. About an hour later I got an email from the director of the institute complimenting me on a "great presentation" and inviting me to present in Washington, DC.

With that good news under my belt, I headed into the party phase of the week. My branch has never been invited to a supervisor's home, so there was considerable buzz around the office. It snowed in the morning and I had real concerns about whether anyone would come out for the event. But I made the maiden voyage down my steep drive and consoled myself with the knowledge that a "professional" taxi driver with his own vehicle would be ferrying my guests to the "hilltop Hyatt."

Dinner with Donna

The house smacked of House Beautiful on Thursday night. I had about 40 tiny candles all over and the smells of pine interspersed with turkey, ham, rum cake, and apple cider. I made mole sauce for the turkey, tried my hand at a kalua cake, and threw in my Mom's cheesecake (notorious from the first branch meeting). Everyone seemed to enjoy the house, the food, and the company. Wisconsin friends will be happy to know that the "applausometer" of caroling party fame has translated with similar popularity to Cincy. Evelyn Palassis' spanokopita took top appetizer honors and Charlene Maloney's Cinnamon Toast story took toasting competition honors. Everyone turned into pumpkins around 9pm (when the taxi stopped running) but not before people pitched in to help clean up.

Yes, babies at the party, too.

The toasting ritual alive and well for another year. This time on Muchmore Road. Garret Burnett took second place honors with a holiday haiku.

Mama Meets Muchmore

The day after the holiday branch party, Mom flew in for the weekend. She got to see the first evergreen season at Muchmore. People gasped when I told them she was coming in on the heels of the party, but they don't know Mom -- she is easily entertained with no grand needs for meals or events. That was great because I had LOTS of food from the party. The road tour of Cincy was very popular, afterall she was married to the "King of the Road" for years. One of the things I inherited from Dad was his love of road trips--seeing the world from the car...being the driver of my own destiny whether from youth to middle age or Muchmore to Kroger. Mom and I checked out the Rookwood Trunk Show. Expensive! The famous pottery manufacturer's early work often turns up on Antique Road Show. They have just reopened their factory that is native to Cincy and produce very high end tile for the exquisite fireplaces and bathrooms of Procter and Gamble executives and the like. We had a particularly enjoyable time hitting it at lunchtime as there were complimentary appetizers and wine...very sheshe. In the end, we spent most of our time playing SCRABBLE and word games plus a little Rummio. Actually, we had a six-hour marathon session on Saturday night.

Mom gave the house her stamp of approval and we were sorry to part ways at the airport on Monday morning. If only we'd known what was in store for us, we could have had an extra day. If I'd have known what I'd come home to, I'd have made her stay...