Christmas 2006

A blessed Christmas to everyone marking it today.

My second here, and the first where I followed the conversation. That is a specific milestone for anyone living abroad and it arrives quietly: one evening you notice you have stopped translating and started simply listening.

What I remember from that table is the carols. Not performed, exactly — sung by people who had known the words since childhood, in a kitchen, without ceremony, in the pause between courses. Somebody starts, everyone joins, and it stops as easily as it began.

I did not know the words. I still mostly do not. But I have been at that table for twenty Christmases now and I would say the singing is the part that stays with you.

A peaceful evening to your household.