Michelle, our holiday is bifurcated. The kids spend xmas eve with their father, they have since the divorce in 1999. It took them a little while to work out their routine, but I think it involves Chinese or Italian takeout and hanging out late. I used to stay up until after he brought them home to set up the Santa effect after they went to bed, but they have come in later each year and I can't handle that late a night, so I set up and go to bed.

We have breakfast on xmas morning, a favorite, usually bacon and buttermilk pancakes, hot tea, whatever. Tomorrow our dinner is a pot roast - I quizzed everyone and that was their preference.

This afternoon I'll make a Puerto Rican dish, a filling for meat pies called "empanadillas." I'll use chicken this year, cubed, and simmered with sofrito (onions, green peppers, garlic) and tomatoes, cilantro, add olives and capers at the end. Usually it goes in pastry and is fried in a shallow pan of oil, but my ex prefers just the filling and eats it over rice. I make a few in pastry for the rest of us.

In the background is music (a local station plays a great selection of holiday oddities collected years ago by a favorite late public radio host) or old holiday movies.

I loved the holidays when the kids were little, but they're still good now that they're big - they help out more, and the conversation and humor is something I look forward to. I'm going to teach the kids how to make this pot roast, taking advantage of a teachable moment.

SRS