My partner Vincent is an artist and every year he creates a Christmas art gift for me, and it’s been a tradition for 45 years. The fun and suspenseful part is that I never what form or shape it will be; There have been books, sculptures, videos, paintings, hand painted tapestries, and multi- media pieces. Vincent’s strict rule is that presents are exchanged on Christmas morning, and no amount of my cajoling, begging, threatening, bribing, and guilt trips to do it on Christmas eve has changed that.
For 2022, the gift was a triptych of photo portraits, from photos Vincent took during our trip to Venice last August. There was an additional piece, which was so clever. Inside a glass box framed in black, is a folded paper with a closeup of my nose and mouth. Once I opened the box, I unfolded the paper, and it was another portrait and on the other side was a beautiful note signed by Vincent. Tears of happiness and joy streamed down my face from this truly extraordinary and loving gift. After being faklempt for a few minutes, we exchanged our other gifts which included an Agnes B. zip-up, navy sweater, an oversized, reversible blue and black cashmere scarf, a box of Louis Vuitton chocolates, a small, onyx and silver cross, a pair of felt slippers, three Snoopy figures, and a Snoopy ceramic bowl.
For Christmas eve, it was just the two of us, with a starter of foie gras followed by steak Diane, potatoes au gratin, and a salad of greens and avocado. Dessert was two, mini buche de Noel’s, chocolate, and lemon from a local patisserie.
On Christmas day we had two friends for lunch, and Vincent, in his new, starched white Ritz Paris apron (a gift from a friend) prepared roasted salmon with miso cream, baby potatoes, spinach and Comte frittata, and a salad of cucumbers and arugula. A chocolate Buche de Noel from a nearby chocolate shop was dessert.
I hope you had as wonderful a Christmas as I did and thanks for your emails and Facebook holiday greetings.
Gold dust in the box
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