One Alice, Many Santas
December 28, 2012
About a week before Christmas, a few more penguins marched in to live in Antarctica on top of the refrigerator. (Note vase serving as glacial background.)
Can you spot the one that slipped on the ice?
Thanks to friends John and Julian and Salli, plus her own expeditions to Goodwill, all these rescued penguins have found their Forever Home with Alice.
Then came flowers from her sister Lillian’s daughter, Shelley.
A few days after that, chocolates began to arrive, a giant emerald green box of Seroogy’s candies (hand-dipped) from Pearl’s daughters, Marty and Karen, all the way from frozen Wisconsin, home-made sweets from Thalia, and a box from Marushka, Portland chocolatiers, sent by Meg.
“Nothing but the best, I guess,” Alice said, bewildered but happy with her good fortune in the sweets department.
Next, fancy potions and lotions from Thalia, Katharine, and Joanne. All together, the stash looked like this:
“Not bad for an old lady,” Alice said.
On Christmas Eve she once again visited the home of Thalia and Mike, with its special decorations from Greece and other distant locations.
Far-away places.
And other kinds of pretty:
And good:
Mike
Plus a golden tree to admire!
On Christmas day she put on her Goodwill Angora sweater with the flashy zipper and a green knit jacket. One of her favorite people stopped by to surprise her in the dining room while we were having dinner.
A Christmas kiss from Ketzel.
Ketzel gave her some unusual soap with a velvet cover (never to be removed) and instructed her in how to use it.
Then some Hanukkah gelt (basically more chocolate), never before seen by Alice:
Milo, aka Smilo, visited the apartment after dinner and immediately found Brio’s ball. 
When her guests left, Alice opened her gifts from me.
A new bed lamp from the Vermont Country Store catalog.
And finally the perfume Alice started wearing way back in the 1960s and continues to put her faith in, even though you don’t see these seductive ads any more.
Thank you, Santas. She had herself a merry little Christmas, and she knows how lucky she is, and I know how lucky I am.
Alice – Christmas 2012.
I hope your Christmas was just as swell. Best of the best to each and every one of you in 2013.
December 28, 2012 at 8:26 pm
It’s wonderful to see Alice so feted and gifted — thank you, as always, for sharing her with us.
Happy New Year to you both — I sent some folks over to your blog today from Facebook –
December 29, 2012 at 7:50 am
not bad for an old lady indeed….and alice’ s gifts are nice too!
December 29, 2012 at 11:42 am
There’s a wonderful line about Tweed in the new Hitchcock movie by the Janet Leigh character (played by Scarlet Johansson). Thank you for sharing the joy of Alice’s Christmas! Delightful post, Andrea.
December 29, 2012 at 12:59 pm
I’m glad Alice had such a great holiday! Julian and I were looking for a penguin to send, but there were not very many around this year. You know we have a whole tree full of penguin ornaments, so we’re always on the lookout but, this year, we found exactly 3 penguin ornaments, and, they were all ugly. I found a penguin figurine, but it just didn’t seem whimsical enough … but, the search continues!
You may have seen this already, but, here’s a Christmas song for Alice … k.d. lang, on PeeWee’s Playhouse, singing Jingle Bell Rock. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJVz14XeBUw
Happy New Year to you and Alice!
December 30, 2012 at 10:17 am
So nice to read about Alice’s Christmas, you are both so lucky to still have each other. Giver her my wishes for an upcoming Happy New Year! and to you too Andrea!