There were a few reactions to a piece last week called New Traditions that merit sharing:
Willamette University classmate and SAE fraternity brother Ron Yan noted that beyond my nickname of “Right On Smitty” due to my unrelenting pursuit of relevance, that “As I recall, we had many more, but certainly less publishable nick names for you.”
David Bixby, also from the WU SAE house, offered photographic proof my my relevance studies; book on the right according to Bix.
Last, Jim Retela, who I know from my work on the staff and faculty at the University of Southern California, offered this sweet note on new traditions in his household. Goyum Jim discovered something that every good Jew and Muslin knows about the Christmas season in the United States:
“Good to hear from you and thanks for keeping me on the email list. You hit a touchstone with your traditions themed comments below. I’ll give you one we share with each other and our boys each Christmas Eve. Relevant as this tradition has roots straight out of SF.
When Heidi and I were dating late ’80s and living in Russian Hill, we found after one very late Christmas Eve service at St Johns(Lake/Arguello and site of our nuptials in ’90), no logical, open, or local place to share a meal before returning home. We searched up and down Geary for more than an hour and just before midnight, we found a Chinese restaurant, Five Happiness, at 5th/Geary still happily serving the dinner meal.
We shared in the first of what would become now a 20+ years Christmas Eve tradition that we share with sons Cooper & Colton. Even through our days in Boston, each and every Christmas Eve after church service(or sometimes before) we head out to a Chinese restaurant and tell stories of when they were young. And we close the loop on the story telling by re-telling what is was like for us living in The City all those years.
A great tradition that our sons look forward to and we will celebrate again this Friday. We never knew when we started that this tradition would be very relevant to life in Orange County today.
Our best to you and your family. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.”
On that note, best wishes for this holiday season and the new year to come; duck a la Julia Child is ready to cook.
