Tuesday, December 25, 2012

The promised high today is 73 and the noticeable lack of illumination in Valencia coupled with the warm weather really doesn’t make it feel like Christmastime.  Although, now that I think of it what made it feel like Christmastime in LA were the succession of parties and Christmas Break.  Yes, I know we were politically correct and we called it Winter Break or Holiday Break even though we knew deep in our hearts that it was not Festivus or Chanukah or Kwanza that motivated the pause in academic activity.

Susan and I have been under the weather for the past few days.  Whatever it was laid us low on Thursday evening and although the messy part lasted less that twelve hours the lingering effects kept us close to home.  With the exception of an occasional foray for bread or beverage, we pretty much stayed close to home and took advantage of the lull in activities to do some major picture and poster hanging.  Susan did all of the work and I served as her trusted advisor and consultant.

Last night we were invited to spend Christmas Eve with Brian and Ofelia and their daughter, Olivia.  When we arrived we were pleased to discover that Naomi, Olivia’s best friend, and Ofelia’s mother were spending some time with The Oberles and would be joining us for dinner.  We arrived around 7:30 and we began dinner a little after 8:00.  Since the meal promised to be very filling, we chatted over drinks and, in the end, were glad that we had not started with snacks.

Dinner last night consisted of a salad that featured greens and fresh fruit, a pork roast, stuffed mushrooms, green beans and a potato and celery root casserole.  There was bread and wine to make the meal complete.  For dessert we were treated to a mango and passion fruit pie, along with an array of cookies.  Coffee was served and then it was time for some magic.

I started off doing an effect or two and then I reached into my magic suitcase and removed a number of envelopes that contained the makings of the effects that I was going to teach everyone how to do.  I shared with them the disappearing leprechaun puzzle, which in our case was the disappearing rabbit puzzle, a movie star prediction effect, the trick done with a dollar bill and two paper clips where the clips magically link and, as a graduation present, I gave them an appearing wand.  Everyone seemed to have fun learning and playing with the effects.

When the teaching segment was over I continued with my magic and I did more effects than I usually do of an evening because everyone seemed to be in the mood for magic last night.  In the midst of all the magic a couple of bottles of champagne managed to disappear.  Before we knew it, it was after 11:30 and Susan’s and my energy levels were flagging.  Brian, as usual, was kind enough to drive us home.  We said our goodbyes, hopped in the car and walked through the door at midnight.  We went to bed soon thereafter because we needed to get up a bit early this morning to take the train to Pedreguer where we had been invited to have Christmas dinner with Pepe and his family.

Here are some photos of the Christmas displays at The Mercado Central, as well as some of last night’s photos.  As usual, all photos were taken by Susan.