As years go, and especially in the context of the DECADE, 2009 was a good year for us all.

Talking in terms of the view from, say low earth orbit, we elected a man who may just be the best President in our lifetimes.  And in the context of the decade, Barack Obama comes to us not a second too soon. Having endured the abject horror of our European friends when we visited England during Bush II’s reign we basked in the brilliance of our collective choice this year.

I’m speaking of our 35^th anniversary sojourn which took us back to England (we’re nearly British subjects we’ve been there so often!) and to Rome, cruising the Med and ending up in Venice. Truly a trip of a lifetime…both in experiences and the paying for.

Actually our timing was quite good. We still had good credit, the Euro was down and the Pound Sterling less than 1 and ½ times the $. Added to this was my obsessive preplanning which paid off in a little gem of a Roman hotel called the San Francesco, a “bargain rate” on the Windstar line (far less than a night in ICU), and Obritz.com cheater rate in Venice. Hey, we spent our 25^th WORKING at the inn…which I vowed I wouldn’t repeat. Carol was amazed I could actually put it all together and she actually LOVED Rome. A non swimmer (ask the kids about taking her to the Water Slide)

Carol was less thrilled about the cruise, but admitted she couldn’t have seen places we sailed to any other way. We both love Venice and even found good food this time, and of course got lost.

To judge by all the Asians, Europeans and various teens we were in lines with in Italy, there is no Recession. The Recession is a California (or US) problem. Maybe it doesn’t exist if you don’t loose your job, your home or your health insurance. Or maybe it’s just our lodging industry, GM, Chrysler, the US Banking complex and the collective hangover from the Bush bash.

If I’ve gotten carried away by relating too much about our trip, it’s because most of the rest of our 2009 pretty much sucked. Sissy died and the cats didn’t.

Okay, WE are healthy. We haven’t gotten Swine Flu, a dread disease, gone Postal at Trader Joes or turned to online Poker to pay the bills, but “things is tough,” as Larry the Cableguy says.

We’re working 100% harder for 20% less revenue. One of our employees is out for months with a broken arm. People keep asking if they can get a discount on our already 40% discounted rooms.

And Timothy Geithner won’t return my calls anymore when I’m checking on our bailout.

But we got love.

Our family is growing up around us with astonishing rapidity. Spencer (11) in his 6^th year at Napa’s Language Academy is continually recognized for his brilliance. Sidney (6) is blazing his own trail there. He’s on the “Watch List” but is doing better now that he realizes they AREN’T speaking Japanese, but Spanish which he’s understanding if refusing to speak. Pheenix (17 going on 27 and living in Sparks) has started appearing in magazines as a model.

Scott has helped us with overnight innkeeping duty and has started what may become a career as a Plumber. He seems much happier than we’ve seen him in years.

We hope you’ll join us in kissing the passing year goodbye and wishing us all a Merry Christmas.

Love to you all,
Jim & Carol

Even Mr. B&B got into the spirit. He soon lost the hat, though.

Christmas comes but once a year.

Too bad it has to come in December.

I come by these sentiments genetically. My father had what the family called “His Christmas Look.”

This look resembled what one might expect from a victim of peptic ulcers.

He wasn’t a Scrouge, not in the true Dicken’s form. He didn’t exactly hate Christmas. More likely he just dreaded it. My father was a worrier and he always worried about money the most. I fear I’ve inherited his outlook.

December is that month that all the money flows OUT: Property Taxes, the Biggest Transient Occupancy Tax bill, Inn Insurance, payroll, Mortgage. Very little flows in because Napa is a couples’ destination, not a family destination. Christmas is a FAMILY holiday. We live on reserves. Not unlike bears, but without the benefit of hibernating.

You, our dear guests help with this seasonal financial disorder: you come back to cheer us up. And you buy gift certificates. And this year you’re buying our wonderful sheets.

You can’t imagine what a joy it is to be given as a gift, and because of your generosity we are part of that giving.

By Christmas the onerous bills have been paid. The annual  Holiday tour has kicked out the winter blues, replacing them with beautiful lights and cherished decorations.

As the Christmas carols waft through the inn mingling with the scent of Hot Mulled wine and Chocolate Chip Cookies even my spirits are lifted.

My father wasn’t an innkeeper, not until the last chapter of his life. By then his feelings for Christmas were too ingrained to change.

I have been an innkeeper nearly half of my adult life now.

While I can’t say I like Christmas (I’m much more of a “Thanksgiving kind of guy”) each year after I’ve seen Dicken’s classic Christmas Carol and Frank Zappa’s “It’s a Wonderful Life” I’m innoculated with the Holiday Spirit.

And I’m ready to welcome you all with a warm smile and Hot Mulled Wine.

Hey, even Scrouge smiled on Christmas!

Mother Nature is a hard ole girl.
If she determines it’s time to send the killing frost to begin Winter’s Slumber, bundle up baby.

No matter if you’re a beloved Begonia or a pretty Princess Plant, you’re gonna freeze…maybe even to death.

It’s not that Mother Nature hates flowers, she just has a schedule to keep. And if you can’t take the frosts of Winter you’re gone. Down to your roots or back to your core.

She’ll do it quick, she’s not sadistic. Over night, under a starry sky she’ll drop the temperature like an icy blanket smothering all that’s tender.
And she’ll do it with style.

In the morning she’ll leave behind a beautiful white wonderland hiding the death in a white shroud of her finest frosty crystals. It takes your breath away, such cold calculus sent to set things in seasonal motion. We are reminded that nothing lasts. That the only constant is change. We are made to understand that it is Mother Nature in charge and she has a plan.

Oh we can try to save a beloved Princess Plant by hiding her under a protective sheet, but it’s about like hiding under the covers from the bogeyman, and about as effective.

All we can hope for is that, come Spring, Mother Nature will choose to bestow the kiss of life on our Sleeping Princesses and the cycle of life will begin again.

Until then we light the long nights with pretty lights, warm wine and roaring fires.

The killing time will be over soon.

We will see Spring signs shortly.

Just about end of January.

Ahhhh, Winter in Napa!

Up until now, let’s just say I’d pretty much lost faith in the promises officials and construction guys make.
Our experience was more of the disappointing, disillusioning kind. Public officials and their bureaucrats weren’t necessarily BAD people. Let’s just say you wouldn’t want to actually BELIEVE them. Especially when they made promises and those assurances involved the phrase “done by Christmas.”
Ever notice how everything will always be “done by Christmas?”
The war will be over. The troops will be home.
The run-away will return. The money will come.

Well, sometimes, it turns out, promises are kept. Take our sidewalks, curbs & gutters and street trees and even our mangled landscape bark…all done. Back in place. Cleaned up. Planted. Swept. Hell, even the inevitable scratchings in wet cement. As promised. Okay, not the graffiti, but you’ll see what I mean.

The 375 people who tromped through the property for the annual B&B Holiday Tour hadn’t a clue that just 24 hours before we were a construction site.

Gone were the huge machines, parked somewhere else. Out of the scene were the mounds of blue base rock. Away were the hundreds of “No Parking” barriers. Left behind were just a manageable few, easily collected and put out of sight. Heck, they don’t work on weekends so parking in the “construction zone”…well there ISN’T a construction zone now. Not at the Beazley House.

Sure, First Street still resembles a Third World byway. And yes there are barriers across and down the street. But OUR little piece of the project is done.

For now.

As promised.

And BEFORE Christmas.