Xmas luncheon

Jenny regaled everyone. It was her 36th year of hosting her paternal family for a gala, this one with 81 attendees, 37 of them under 18 years (and most of those under 10). Irish Catholic families have a certain prolific nature about them...

She was peripatetic, coaxing the wee ones in song (with her best kindergarten teacher skills amply displayed), exhorting the oldsters to put their shoulder to the wheel in these economically challenged times, praising the staff who loyally support this noisy horde, and always on the move, with a light touch on the shoulder or a ready smile for the weary.

This was the twelfth year at the Fairmont Pavilion Room in San Francisco, and four of the helpers had worked all twelve years with us. Santa showed about 2:15 for the sixteenth year -- every child knows him by name, and he them. And the gifts he brought were smash hits -- one little girl proudly telling her mother that her mother was wrong when she'd said she was too young to get a cellphone -- that SANTA said it was fine, and in fact gave her one! The look on that mother's face was priceless, as Visa would say.

Consistency, loyalty, family, tradition... values that we think are worth nurturing. We are so blessed that this extended family takes time every year to bring their children and share them with us.