Our mini date tonight was unglamorous, though hubby had donned his hat and I had my pink down vest and a red sweatshirt for Christmas ambiance.
We drove the ‘hood’ looking for bedecked homes with lights and of course, to Beverly Hills.
We were disappointed. The decorations were “unimaginative” and quite dampened by struggling city budgets. We even saw a go fund me for Music Hall and upscale restaurants with big banners “To Go,” meaning you can order meals to take home, to go and $5 parking after 6pm to entice folks to come.
The best decor we found was a mannequin decorated inside a house and a tall Christmas tree near Tiffany’s in Rodeo Drive.
On a brighter note, the warm hearted efforts and thoughtful generosities of friends, all are surprises, as they would text and then, show up with lots of goodies like the Oriel sisters with the most delicious panettone, cookies and a bouquet of beautiful sunflowers. They bring me good karma, and the whole week was just one surprise after another.
From Ruben V. Nepales comes the largest coffee table book, handdelivered as a purchased copy. It is outstanding and worthy to be passed down to your descendants as a compendium of life lessons on humanity, struggle, care for the environment. It was well curated by publisher Bessie Badilla and a very sweet loving foreword from Ruben’s own tweet, Janet Susan Rodriguez Nepales,plus more goodies of cups, chocolates and books enough to warm your inner heart and soul this winter.
From my thoughtful friend, Lu Sobredo, a novelist who has finished her manuscript during this pandemic, comes this beautiful light tangerine scarf that my precious granddaughter enjoyed dressing me up with. To my granddaughter, her language of love is play.
Lu gave me a peek of one chapter and the dialogue is intriguing and oozing in love.
Last night, my favorite beautiful daughter brought us dinner and as she was exiting, our doorbell rang. Xtine McLalad, a fellow club member of fans of Koreanovelas, a fellow foodie, got us a box of the most delicious kiwis, as sweet as she is, 4 yellow mochi with red beans and nuts and ingredients to make jajangmae.
From JP Liban a Purdue bear that my granddaughter loves to hug.
Today, I got two liquid golds – Carol Ojeda-Kimbrough’s calamansi vinegar and garlic in oil plus two cherimoyas and a passion fruit from Ani Rodriguez-Villero garden. Sweet people, sweet fruits, sweet products, too!
My dear dear friends – you have been mighty generous to me! I feel like you are creating my heaven on earth and your love keeps me warm though the Coronavirus scares the hell out of us, especially with 2 folks dying every hour in Los Angeles County.
Thank you all – my heart overflows with joy!
