We are on our way again, aren’t we. Family, friends, parties, mistletoe, (hopefully), eggnog, the color green, the color red, the smell of wood burning, and much more are all part of the next 25 days. In the good old days, the 25th day from Dec.1 was followed by a headache and a New Year’s Day football game. Now that my New Year’s Eve activities are generally confined to pre-midnight New York time, the New Year’s Day headaches are fewer.

The season started at the annual East Jefferson Rotary Club Christmas party, which we held at the Marrowstone Winery with some wine and a charcuterie spread from “Wake and Wave Boards.” I wonder if any of you would automatically think “charcuterie” with that business name. I struggled to get there. There was a good crowd with many fine voices joining in as we sang the requisite Christmas carols. I was honored to lead the singing and was reluctantly joined in leadership by several sopranos and altos in attendance. BJ, TJ, Robin, Julie, Linda, another BJ, another Julie, and others were helpful. In addition, the folks at Marrowstone could not have been nicer to us.

A few days later it was the Christmas Tree lighting ceremony at the Port Ludlow Plaza, right between the not-yet-open “That Peetza Place” and the rumored-to-open sometime-in-the-last-year hamburger joint. The Port Ludlow Singers started right on time at 4 p.m. and unfortunately were done about 4:15 p.m. Then Santa Claus arrived and attempted to restore order at the same time he failed to get the sound system to work properly. Then Diana Smeland of the sponsoring Port Ludlow Associates pressed the remote control in her coat and the lights on the tree exploded with brightness, kinda, adding to the Yuletide Spirit. There were children with candy canes, parents with coffee and cookies, and people like me with hot chocolate and a cookie. We hung out with our friends Steve and Fran Gross, Greg Brown who is rumored to be getting married sometime soon, Karen Best and other locals. Oops, Diana Smeland hit the remote control and the tree lights went off. We need to get that remote control out of her hands.

The Port Ludlow Art League had a “pop-up” gift shop where BJ found a gift for our daughter. Pamela Raine advised me that she had a bone to pick with me, because in a recent “Life in Ludlow” I confessed that I did not know why they changed their name. The next time you see her be sure to ask. She will tell you.   

As you may recall, Rotary International has been very successful over the past 40 years in efforts to eradicate polio around the world. I was recently reminded of an interesting presentation by Jillian Gauld we had at our club, describing the work she is doing with the Gates Foundation tracking and modeling polio vaccine effects. With luck, we will see more of her, since her folks live here in Port Ludlow and Christmas is coming!

As the holidays get going, we are probably best advised by Carl Sagan when he said: “Let us temper our criticism with kindness. None of us come fully equipped.”

Love a curmudgeon and have a great week.

ned@ptleader.com