We always eat at Philippe’s when we’re down there. I love the ambiance (everybody sitting around on stools talking about how good the sandwiches are, etc.) and then there is that 10-cent cup of coffee.

I hope you have recovered from your last culinary experience. Lay off the Mexican food, your stomach needs a break.

But the pictures are great.

I hope everybody has a happy and safe holiday.

I am snowed in. This whole white Christmas thing is over rated.

Thanks for the memories! I well remember Christmas on Olvera Street (as well as school trips there every year). What wonderful photos, too!

As the only gentile kid growing up between Highland and Fairfax, most of our friends were Jewish and I was naturally the shabbes goy par excellence. So in addition to Thanksgiving we got an early start with Rosh Hashana and all that.

And before Christmas, Dad would take us all in the Pontiac downtown to the Southern Pacific yards south of where you were last night, where they had boxcars full of trees, with ice on their wooden floors. Then it was off to be with my Mom’s side of the family and lots of great Central American food, including glasses of homemade horchata followed by misa de Medianoche at Christ the King or someplace like that. Then the whole Christmas Day thing with my Dad’s Anglo side of the family. Wonderful.

Merry Christmas, Roger!

Merry Christmas to you and yours.

Athos.

We spent a month driving all over Mexico. Met nothing but helpful courteous good looking people especially the happy smiling children.

It was wonderful fun and yes they are poor by our standards, but they are also proud and hardworking and their families are intact. When you see people walking in the streets, there’s a mother and father with their children.

Feliz Navidad a todos.

Thanks for everything Roger, hope the New Year brings all you deserve for the work you do here.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.

Great post. I think I’ll start considering you as a Southern Californian and not just another “westsider”. (high praise indeed)

If you want to read a very wise and truly sweet Christmas message from one of our local professors (yes, a reasonable professor!) check this out:

http://ocregister.com/ocr/2004/12/24/sections/commentary/orange_grove/article_354286.php

Today is a day for Christmas CDs, wrapping presents, cooking and sending good wishes to the world, all in the name of the babe born so long ago in Israel. So to Roger and his Gang, to all our bloggie friends here and across the globe, all the blessings of the day to you, and a happy New Year!