On Strike for Christmas (29 page)

I'd like to thank my friend Kema Bohn for helping me get my cancer facts straight. You beat the disease with grace and dignity—you're an inspiration. Thank you also to the Port Orchard Brain Trust: Lois Dyer, Rose Marie Harris, Patty Jough-Haan, Krysteen Seelen, Susan Plunkett, Kate Breslin, Susan Wiggs, and Anjalee Banerjee. Your insights were always appreciated. I also want to acknowledge my amazing agent, Paige Wheeler, and my wonderful editor, Rose Hilliard. Where would I be without you two? (I don't want to even try to imagine.) Thanks, too, to all those great cooks whose recipes have added richness to my life and pounds to my hips. Speaking of recipes, thanks, Marliss, for helping me make some of those old family recipes make sense. And last but not least, thanks to my long-suffering husband, Robert, who said to make sure I spelled his name right, for helping me with my football terminology. (So, did I get the name right?) Happy holidays to every one of you! May your stockings be filled with all the good things you deserve and may the Sugarplum Fairy make the calories vanish from every Christmas cookie you eat.