We went to Pegasus ‘ Jewelry Extravaganza from 1:00 to 3:00
and Suzette bought several interesting items of jewelry including a pearl and
peridot necklace and a lovely Norwegian bracelet of yellow enamel coated silver
hearts linked together to make a bracelet, that looked a lot like a Fabregé
enameled piece.
Then we went home and changed clothes, I put on a jacket and
Suzette wore a velvet dress with cowboy boots and the necklace and braclet
described above that she had just bought and shortly after 4:00 we went around
the corner to Kylene and Barry’s Holiday Open House. 
We love going to Kylene and Barry’s Holiday Open House because they have such superb taste. They have remodeled an older two story home in our Country Club Neighborhood (we often keep track of who is living where in our neighborhood by the former owners’ name and I think theirs is the Brooks‘ Photography house. We, for example, everyone knows where we live when we tell them we live in the Crevling house across the street from the Domenici house).
Kylene and Barry's house is a lovely older house with large porches on the south side of both the first and second floors with walls of windows built originally to catch the prevailing southwest breezes, but now having been turned into atrium/sitting rooms.
You enter into a foyer that is dominated by a staircase wrapping
around three walls that leads to the second floor accented with a handmade
wrought iron railing. To one side of the
foyer is the living room and on the other a small den. If you walk straight ahead you enter a small
dining area that is located between the kitchen and the living room. This evening the dining room table was filled
with what can only be described as protein lovers’ delights: truffled paté of
duck liver, sides of smoked salmon, a smoked turkey, and a spiral cut ham with
mustard and cranberry sauce and a basket full of slices of fresh baguette, and
wonderful cheeses, including English Stilton, Dutch Gouda, and a Cheddar with specks
of truffle, and a plate filled with warm baked brie garnished with pesto and
pinon nuts. On the kitchen stove, there
were cauldrons of baked beans and green chili stew and a smaller pot of red
chili sauce. In the first floor atrium at
the back of the house was a table filled with wines and a large pitcher filled
with non-alcoholic lemonade. On the
floor beside the sideboard were an ice chest and an ice filled bucket filled
with beers and beverages. A wonderful
Christmas spread.
We talked to several people for a while. I spoke to Connie Nellos, from whom Barry had
bought the wine for the party and he offered to sell me some of the same wines
that he was featuring at his Yale Quarters store. I particularly liked the Marchesi Chianti
Superiore and ordered a case for $4.99 per bottle.
Christmas Open Houses seem to take on a potlatch sort of feel
where there is more wonderful food than you would ever serve at a regular meal,
often tending toward hearty winter protein rich foods. I enjoyed
seeing Kylene and Barry’s beautifully remodeled house and loved eating their food
and drinking the new interesting wines.
We went early at 4:15 to see the table set with all the food before many
of the guests arrived and we left at around 7:00 after noshing on all the good
food and catching up with lots of old friends and a few new folks .
I had a long conversation with Skip who used to be an owner and
manager of the La Fonda in Downtown Albuquerque and Ann Lerner, who used to be
or still is Director of the State or Albuquerque’s Film Commission who married each
other a couple of years ago. I also enjoyed
a spirited discussion with Robert Reck, the photographer, who won the best
dressed award for his elegant paisley silk lined sports jacket and his
companion, Jennifer?, who has been come up with some startling results using
GIS mapping of Albuquerque’s neighborhoods to identify concentrations of medical
ailments and possible sources of those ailments (mostly in areas populated by
poorer people) and whose two children had attended UBC and whose daughter is currently
attending UBC’s nursing college. We also
spoke to Kathleen and Travis Collier about their younger son Drew, who is one
of Willy’s closest friends and who we visited with in September in Portland, Maine.
May all our Christmases be so bright.
Bon Appétit
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