Christmas without family issues - spent at a friends house to which Mom was also invited. (Mom is a wonderful guest; I try to be - hence no family issues.)
Dinner was a lamb cooked Greek style. I contributed a Delicatto squash so sweet, one guest commented she might try it next Thanksgiving instead of sweet potato.
The hit of the evening was a family with a Hungarian American mother (as in Hungarian is her main language, and her English has a charming Hungarian accent) and her son who learned to speak fairly recently - and speaks both English and Hungarian at the two year old level.
She combines real love for her kid with a matter of factness about motherhood that is very appealing. Picture this: charming mother playing with yound son by dangling a toy in front him he squeals as he leaps for. She gazes at him affectionately and comments "he is now old enough that soon he becomes more fun to play with than the cat."
The father has giving up cursing so that his son won't pick up the habit from him. "He can learn swear words the right way - from other kids when he starts preschool" the Dad explains. In the meantime he has trained himself to the point where anytime he was going to say "Oh Shit" he say "Oh -beat - Man" instead. Little Miklos has totally picked this up. He sounds very sixties when he does this, so we other guests amused ourselves by teaching him to high five.