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| Kitsilano - December 24, 2020 |
My Rosemary died on December 9 and since then I have done a lot of staring at the ceiling from my bed and appreciating that Niño and Niña are clinging to me and want my attention all the time.
I have no idea if they sense that Rosemary is not around or if it simply means that cats, the social animals that they are want to be next to the only human left in the house.
When the idea of celebrating Christmas Eve came around (I have celebrated Christmas Eve with Rosemary since 1968 and with our both of our daughters since. In the last 23 years one our granddaughters have come to enjoy the night.
For many of those Eves Rosemary and I cooked the same dinner. This included a roast beef, Yorkshire pudding (Rosemary’s The Joy of Cooking recipe), my much appreciated beef gravy modified with onions and drippings, a cucumber salad and for dessert Rosemary’s flan.
This year I decided on the same menu. With the help of Hilary we managed a decent Yorkshire pudding and my version of Rosemary’s flan was just that. I was happy.
There was one modification to the drinks. For Hilary and Lauren I made fresh tangerine, orange and lemon drink. But for Bruce Stewart, Rebecca and I we had the lovely Catena Malbec.
A bone of contention for many years, was my telling the granddaughters that I felt tired and sleepy and that we would open the presents under the tree the next day. This year there was no tree. I did not have the heart to buy one and go to the storage room and decide on the ornaments. This is something (the ornament side of it) that Rosemary always did. Our single Christmas decoration was a huge poinsettia that our Friend Time Turner brought earlier in the week leading to Christmas.
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| Rebecca Anne Stewart |
There were no gifts. For Ale and Hilary I bought two digital subscriptions to the NY Times.
Another bone of contention has always been the Christmas photograph. I had the lights ready and as soon as we finished we took the pictures. With the Fuji X-E3 on self-timer I took a few pictures in which one of us managed to close our eyes. Then I brought Niño into the picture (notice how unhappy he looks). But the picture had all our eyes open and it became the keeper.
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| Lauren Elizabeth Stewart |
Earlier in the evening when the Stewarts arrived Rebecca (23) said her clothing was wet. She went upstairs but I did not notice what she was wearing until the Christmas photo happened. It was then that I noticed that she was wearing a lovely Rosemary black dress with a scoop neck. Rebecca is the only one that can wear Rosemary’s clothing because like Rosemary she is slim. I suggested she pose for me by Turner’s poinsettia while wearing my mother’s red Mexican rebozo. I must state here that the resulting photographs are lovely and somehow the dress and the rebozo brought into our Kits home the presence of my mother and my wife.
I did not photograph Lauren because a few days before she posed with next year’s (she hopes!) prom dress.
My oldest daughter Ale remained in Lillooet because of bad road conditions.
