In Highland Park I wrapped the children’s presents in our niece’s room with the door firmly locked against the two kids laying siege outside it. Hannuka presents at that house are arranged beneath the grand piano in the living room . The holiday was actully two weeks away, but celebrated while we were in town, and so we had the traditional unChristmas dinner at a Chinese restaurant. JP Chang’s, was quite good upscale, dimly lit with lots of dark rich wood and Asian carvings.

Everyone opened presents when we returned to the house. I was especially delighted with the carefully thought-out gift to me from my in-laws, two old cookbooks dating back to the 1930s, especially a slim, hardback volume on sandwiches that informed me, among other things, “The Virgin Mary loved spinach…”

The little volume is THE EDGEWATER SANDWICH BOOK WITH CHAPTERS ON SUPREMES, HORS D’ OEUVRES, GARNITURES, RELISHES AND FLAVORED BUTTERS, by Arnold Shircliffe, (author of THE EDGEWATER BEACH SALAD BOOK), published in 1930 by John Willy Inc., the Hotel Monthly Press, Chicago IL.

It’s a slim, handsome hardback that can easly be held in one hand and consulted while cutting egg whites and pimentoes into aeroplanes for the Aeroplane or Lindbergh sandwich on page three.