(I got a Merry Christmas From Robin, above)

We are having a quiet lovely Christmas. Last night, we had two friends over and I made two gourmet pizzas: one pear and goat  and sheep cheese and pesto, one chicken sausage, kale, and mozzarella.

I undercooked one, and over cooked the other, but they didn’t come out badly. I didn’t start early enough. I learned a lot about making pizzas.

We had the nicest time talking and just being together.

Our Christmas was simple, quiet, peaceful. This morning Maria and I went to the Mansion and I read Christmas stories to the residents there,  it felt like one of the nicest Christmases experiences.

Doing good feels so much better than living in fear or anger.

Our plan for the rest of the day is to go to a movie and then out to dinner. We were planning to see the new movie about Vincent Van Gogh, At Eternity’s Gate. It stars William DeFoe.

We were both interested in the movie, we love seeing movies about art, and Maria said she knew she would cry, Van Gogh was such a brilliant artist, his life was so sad. We’ve been planning to go on Christmas for weeks.

We had the schedule out and were making our plans when we spotted a trailer for the new Sherlock Holmes movie spoof, Homes & Watson, starring Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly. I just clicked on it on my Iphone and we watched it together.

We just started laughing at scene after scene. I thought if I don’t laugh at any other scene, it will be worth it to see this movie. It is so healthy to laugh. Sometimes I think our country is forgetting  how to do it.

Maria was laughing so hard the bed was shaking.

Don’t be fooled, she and I both have a robust adolescent sense of humor.

Maria and I both love slapstick. I remember nearly choking to death laughing during a W.C. Fields movie – Never Give A Sucker An Even Break – when Fields kicked the obnoxious Baby Leroy in the butt after being tormented by him

I also remember Maria laughing so hard during the last Three Stooges movie that some teenagers in the back row asked her to be quieter, they said they couldn’t hear the movie.

Maria and I both looked at one another and we knew we were about to change plans. We figured if we laughed this hard at the trailer, we had to like the movie, even thought we knew little about it and had not read any of the reviews.

“We have a choice today,” Maria said. “We can laugh or we can cry”

It wasn’t a hard choice, “let’s go laugh,” I said. Afterwards, we will get some food at a Japanese restaurant.

And isn’t this a metaphor for America today. We need to laugh.

Our Christmas day will be in perfect balance, starting with talking in bed, then going to the Mansion and then being at home, and going out to eat.

I also called my sister Jane, Christmas was such an important day for us, we both loved it so when we were litt,e and were so caught up in it for weeks before December 25.

We were both so unhappy so much of the time Christmas was a happy day, even to excess.

It was the only day of the year that our family suspended it’s hateful warring and tried to love one another. We had the Christmas spirit right, but could never pull the rest of life together.

Scheduled happiness like this rarely works out, of course, but it was good to talk to Jane, she is living a life of peace and healing, she tries so much to do good, there are so many ways in which we are alike, so many in which we are different.

On Christmas, she just wants to be with her dogs, she has given up on sharing her life with people. It is a choice that has worked for her, but not for me. Yet she does so much good wherever she can.

Talking to her, I realize how much we have in common, we shared things nobody else ever saw or knows about, and we have both been dealing with it our whole lives. I admire her, she has put her life together and it has never been  easy.

So I honor this Christmas day, it has a lot of meaning for me, and for Maria, who has had her own struggles with family and Christmas.

I think today of those who fit in, and those who don’t, and I want to send a Christmas greeting to those in particular who don’t fit in. I know you are out there, and I send you a message of love, peace and compassion.

Some of you may know that life is good, no matter our challenges and to those of you who aren’t certain, my wish for you is to not give up, to hope and feel and love.

I believe that what we put out comes back to us. Merry Christmas to you.

And go laugh if you can.