Right now, as my daughters read the title of this blog, they are cringing. I will happily admit that I get a bit of wicked pleasure in embarassing them with goofy antics and purposely dreadful/playful attempts to drop modern slang and references into conversations with them. Actually, they know what I’m up to and play their part in this little interaction, rolling their eyes and shaking their heads in mock horror at my blatant lack of cool. We all enjoy this teasing aspect of our relationship, and it’s one which I don’t get to indulge in as much as I’d like, with both of them living in the Chicago area most of the year. Some of the body language and timing is lost over the phone lines (even with Skype) or in emails, an immediacy that only being physically together actually satisfies.

This last week, then, was a completely pleasurable one for me as both girls (and son-in-law Dan) were home for Christmas. We had plenty of time to catch up on just being together without going anywhere particularly special or doing anything terribly remarkable. (Well, I take that back a bit; Sarah, Dan and I took a quick afternoon trip down to the redwoods, which Jenny, Harry and I had seen together last summer. As I wrote in my blog at that time, that is a VERY special and remarkable trip.) After a Christmas Day in which all of us spent the day in pajamas, we took in the George Clooney film Up in the Air. It was the one we all (including my mother-in-law) could agree on seeing together, and we all enjoyed it. As Kim mentioned in her blog a few weeks ago, I’m sure it holds moments to which most of our frequent-flyer GT readers could relate.

After hearing our raves over the past several months, our guests insisted that we take them to two of our favorite places in Central Point: the Rogue Creamery and Lillie Belle Farms (I’ve also mentioned each a few times in my blogs). Located next door to each other, the businesses serve up amazing cheeses and chocolates, respectively, created from local raw ingredients and appreciated (and awarded) internationally. After sampling several Rogue cheeses and an assortment of other producers’ cheeses from the creamery’s case, we forced ourselves to narrow our purchases to a few exquisite choices and then trooped next door to Lillie Belle. I could almost be satisfied with just walking in the door and inhaling deeply for several minutes, but why stop there? The rest of our party agreed, and after another opportunity to freely sample from chocolatier/owner/wizard/artist Jeff Shepherd’s heavenly concoctions, we each chose some goodies to take home and gift to friends and relatives not lucky enough to be with us that day.

Another evening we chose to forego more football games and Christmas movies on TV and visited the local bowling alley, Lava Lanes, for a few games of not-very-competitive play. Thankfully, my level of fun was not at all in proportion to my score, which was truly abysmal. We also spent some time in the adjoining video arcade, where I had my first introduction to Dance Dance Revolution (that could become addictive; I may have an idea for next year’s Christmas list!) and the kids enjoyed blasting aliens in “Area 51.” 

In between our jaunts around town, we collectively completed a few jigsaw puzzles and laughed over old home videos from the girls’ early years. Nothing special, as I said, but also utterly delightful. Yep, there’s nothing better in life than hangin’ with my homies (cue the eye rolling and head shaking).

 — Patty Vanikiotis, proofreader