Austin, TEXAS, December 21, 2005 — I have many girlfriends. These three I see tonight are special to me. We've been friends forever. (I have actually known one for more than thirty years.) Two live here and the third visits from California. Her visits are usually our excuse to get together. FFP is doing the Nutcracker thing again. Karen Kuykendall is the celebrity Mother Ginger. So...the outing tonight will be Girls Night Out. Just because it's all us females. It's not like we really do those things anymore. In our youth, many of us single, it was an excuse to just go out with friends. GNO.

This morning we took the dog to the vet's

office to get her surgery drain dealt with and stopped off at Upper Crust for a pastry and coffee while reading The Dallas Morning News. (The only paper that we don't alredy get that is current in their boxes.)

I was pondering whether I should go out and buy something for the girls for Christmas. We sort of say we don't buy each other presents, but then some of us always do it. So if you don't have one you have to be gracious in receiving. Which is fine. I'm better at just having a gift for them, too.

I went to the gym and thought about it while I was exercising. Different places I could go. Things I could buy. I thought of all those holiday shoppers. The other day I bought some party spreaders (those little blunt knives with fancy handles for serving cheese or paté). I also bought some Christmas dish towels. I have a box of Lamme's Texas Chewies left from a case I bought for gifts and as a favor to my uncle who likes to give them away. We also bought some bottles of South African bubbly that we liked that was served at two parties we went to.

I went home. Maybe I will shower and go out and buy some little presents, I thought. In the shower, I suddenly thought, "I will give them a bottle of the South African bubbly to try and I'll use the Christmas tea towels to decorate them!" Since I've just been to SA (although I confess I didn't drink any of this Graham Beck sparkler there), it's appropriate. And it's festive and the girls will enjoy it. And have nothing left to dust.

I felt energized. I didn't have to go out shopping! We went to get the dog. (She has a bandage and her T-Shirt protecting the new drain.) She watched me as I tied the Christmas towels jauntily around the bottles, added some wire decoration with candy canes and stuck labels on the bottles. Dogs are nonplused by gift wrapping. They want treats. Now. No need to wrap.

I felt good about these gifts. The wine is a new discovery of mine. The girls will think I brought it back. (Although I'll confess I didn't.) They can consume it, polish the glasses with the towel and throw it in the laundry.

I was pumped. So I went 'shopping' in the house for FFP's books. (For those not following carefully along, we've agreed to wrap a few books for each other, pulled out of our collection of about 3000 tomes. We try to find something the other one would like to read but hasn't or hasn't gotten to in a long time.) I found two hardbacks that felt right. He may not read them, but he will have a package to unwrap when we have gifts with the old folks on Christmas Eve or Christmas. I found a gift bag and tissue to recycle and put it 'under the tree.' (On top of the glass table that has lights and decorations.)

Now I'm really pumped. I think maybe that is the end of my Christmas presents. Unless I suddenly decide to give someone else something because we are seeing them or FFP says "don't we have something we could give...." Another year of presents done. I like the idea of buying things and gayly wrapping them and having people enjoy the getting. But there's no question it is a burden sometimes.

Sure enough, two of my friends arrived with gifts. The other is steadfast in staying out of that fray. She grew up in a conflicted household, one Christian parent, one Jewish. She is also good at being gracious while not herself rushing around to buy something for someone because we are having dinner. I presented everyone with their bubbly.

"How did you get champagne back?" said one friend.

"I didn't. I bought it at Grapevine Market." I tell the tale of tasting it recently at events, finding it retail. I don't say that I just bought a half dozen bottles and then decided today to give it to them. I don't say that I bought the Christmas towels similarly, just in case.

My friend from California brought See's Candy as she always does. She is predictable but it is consumable and she knows everyone's favorites by now. I had decided not to give the pretty spreaders to anyone. They may migrate to the 'gift closet' for an emergency gift one day. But one of my friends gave the gracious receiver some similar ones. I thought that was sort of funny. If I'd had three sets rather than one left I might have given everyone those! The giver, one year, received from me some pretty dessert plates with Guy Buffet French guy decoration. Which, it turned out, was hilarious. Because she had tried and failed to get the identical plates for me! This friend brought me a book this year on all the Culinary Areas of France. A big gloriious book with pictures, places and recipes. I said I was going to cook more in my retirement. (Of course, I'm currently poring over the Fonda San Miguel Cookbook because we plan a charity dinner in February using its recipes.) My contribution to cooking is usually confined to table decoration (I'm thinking of strewing milagras on the tables among votive candles for that Mexican one...) and appreciative eating. But this is a wonderful gift and goes well with my current intentions. (Of course, it is a delight for the consumer, too, because you can merely drool over the pictures or plan to go to the patisseries and restaurants mentioned.)

We are old and wise and don't take the gift giving too seriously. Saw people at Chez Zee the other day, many tables of them, having gift exchanges and it didn't seem to us that they'd mastered a casual graciousness about it...it seemed more like a duty to one up each other. An anuual escalation.

We headed downtown for our reservation at Capitol Brasserie. These dinners together have a shape. We talk about our travels and travails. We take a long time to decide on food and wine. We share tastes here and there. I had a roasted beet salad and a duck confit with Lyonnaise potatoes and frisée and it was delicious. I had a cheese plate which I shared a bit and ate too much of. We shared a delicious (cherries!) mostly Merlot Bordeaux. A Croix de Rambeaux, Lussac St. Emilion, I think. I had a tawny Port with my cheese. We all agreed that the place was the only place in Austin that did French Brasserie food reasonably authentically. These places are a dime a dozen in Paris. And New York. And I love them. Steak Frites. Mussels. Steak Tartare. Croque Monsieur, Croque Madame. But I digress.

We headed home and they came into my house. One took an after dinner drink. (The other non-driver!) We discussed things girls talk about. We made over Chalow who was excited to see us and wanted a taste of one of my friend's "Doggie" bag. They thought she was fetching in her Austin T-Shirt, bright red for the holidays.

"We were just there!" Said one, pointing to a lithograph of a Paris Street. And she meant right there, too. "We went in that shop, the toy store." (It isn't a toy store in the print but it is in reality today.)

I showed her FFP's picture there. (His Paris album was there on the coffee table.)

Another picked up a little book of Elton John photos that our friend Kirk Tuck took when Elton for a fundraiser. (No, I couldn't afford to go. It was very, very expensive.) She covered it and uncovered it with her hand, "Forrest? Elton John? Forrest? Elton John?"

I had never noticed it but, using FFP's album (a collection of him standing at various Paris landmarks, eating in the hotel breakfast room, etc.) we confirmed that they have the same mouth.

"I've always said it. Haven't you heard me say that they look alike? Except for the hair?"

I never had. But it was unmistakable. Some weird colored glasses, earrings, a hair dye job...hmmm.

That's the kind of thing you talk about on Girls Night Out.