Jessica had not intended to get a Christmas tree since she lived alone in her condo but after a few days she decided otherwise and we found an adorable little tabletop tree. She dragged out the boxes of Christmas decorations and Jay joined us to spend an evening decorating it and her condo. On the tree we used the hand-made fan coral and seashell ornaments created during our family’s year-long sailing cruise through the Caribbean Islands in the early 90s. Chris, Jessica and Kevin had collected scraps of fan coral and small shells along the beaches they visited. They tore the coral into various shapes, glued tiny shells to them, and then hung them with colorful embroidery floss. It brought back some very fond memories of our wonderful experience on the boat as we decorated the tree.
George Johnson, a former Coast guard buddy of Jay’s, and his wife Caroline, invited us, and Jessica, to their family Christmas dinner. Chris concocted a dish to share and off we went. Caroline had been cooking for a couple of days and we enjoyed a truly a sumptuous feast with all the trimmings, seasonal decorations, candles, fine china, silver and lace tablecloth in, of course, the formal dining room; just like Chris’s Mom used to do. We were right at home and enjoyed seeing them and meeting more of their family and friends.
Fortunately they served the meal in the early afternoon and Jessica could attend before she had to leave for her night shift at Headquarters. She came in civilian attire and brought her uniform expecting to change when she got to work. Caroline would have nothing of it and insisted Jessica change there so that she could see her in uniform. Caroline ooohed and aaaahed and told her how wonderful she looked and how she loved to see a young person in uniform.
The next night we had our own Christmas celebration at Jessica’s condo. We fixed a simple, but tasty dinner, opened gifts and relaxed in front of the TV viewing a cute movie. The night of the 27th, she insisted that we see the new movie, Avatar. We had no knowledge of its existence but agreed to go and had no regrets despite our late start to catch the 10:45 p.m. movie. The entire 3-D film is chocked full of special effects that are pure eye candy and we really enjoyed it despite its somewhat predictable storyline. We found the theme to be very spiritual in nature which is in line with a lot of the books that Chris has been studying over the last 13 years.
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