Randi Kreiss

Holiday musings on la crème de la crème

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You’re absolutely right: This is no time to talk politics or terror plots or rogue politicians. Rather, let us ring the bells, light the candles, gather the family and celebrate all that is good in our lives. It’s Christmas week and the last days of 2015 — we’ll have time enough in 2016 to pick up the burdens of real life again.

As I thought about the great moments of 2015, I realized that some of the best things are indeed free. Perhaps the best freebie is time spent at nearby beaches, the sun-tipped strands that stretch around the edges of our communities. Days at the beach engage the senses, and they are always different, changing with time and tide.

It was a wonderful year for expanding horizons, too. Although I’m not much of a city person, I kept a promise to myself to “see stuff” this year, and I did. My husband and I ventured out to the boroughs for delicious Asian and Italian and Korean and Greek food. We saw Kermit Ruffins, the NOLA jazz musician, in Williamsburg, and I caught what I thought was the best play of the year, “The Humans,” on Broadway.

Farther afield, my best travel memory is of a serendipitous trip to see my kids and grandkids out West. I woke up one Friday morning longing to see the little ones. I jumped online, saw a flight that very evening and booked a ticket. The best, most extraordinary thing about this? The fare, for some reason, for a nonstop flight from JFK to Reno, Nev., was just $114. Talk about seizing the day.

As a foodie, my best at-home experience of 2015 was a meal I cooked for the two of us. We began with spicy tortilla crab soup, which was followed by grilled lobster tails, butternut squash and braised broccoli rabe. The grand finale was crème brulee, which was indeed la crème de la crème.

In the public arena, I read several gripping books, listened to numerous provocative podcasts and watched a lot of fun TV. Best book: “Fates and Furies,” by Lauren Groff. Best podcast: Anna Sales’s “Death, Sex and Money.” Best movie: “Spotlight,” although it wasn’t as good as “All the President’s Men,” an even better story about a great newspaper taking down an institution. Best App: Waze, the go-to application for driving directions. Best TV series: “Narco,” on Netflix.

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