Secret Longings

Twas the day after Christmas
We're off in the car.
Returning gifts we travel afar...

RHYS BOWEN: I'm not going to ask how many of us are taking stuff back to the store. Instead I want to know what was the one gift you really really longed for and didn't get. If you'd had the chance to whisper in Santa's ear what would you have wished for? Neiman Marcus catalog kind of stuff. The best gift ever. Money no object.(and it can't be world peace or freedom from hunger, because we all want that and even Neiman Marcus doesn't have the power to grant it)

I started gaily on this topic and now I'm finding it hard to come up with an answer because I don't really lust after material things. I'm happy driving my Camry and don't need a Lexus under the tree. If I had a huge diamond I'd only worry about dropping it down the bathroom sink. (I did that to a sapphire).

A few years ago it might have been a date with Robert Redford. But now he's looking a little worn. One thing I've always wanted was to land a 747. To make that giant bird touch down gently would be so cool.
And I'd like a luxury safari... a house on an island in the Caribbean maybe?
So how about you, dear JRW sisters? Secret longings please.

ROSEMARY HARRIS: Okay, this is a trick question because if we SAY something we're shallow, but if we say we have all we need we're smarmy. So I'll go first and be shallow - then the rest of you will sound more highly evolved.

I went to a fabulous dinner party last week (Ladies only.) Among other things the hostess had a giving tree from which we all plucked watches or bracelets. But it wasn't just the opulence of the home (I would happily live in her kitchen) or the event. There were two dining rooms set up and I chose to dine in her library. A wonderful book-lined room with a giant fireplace. Me like.

HANK PHILLIPI RYAN: Okay, I'll play. And I'm not evolved either, you've seen my closet. Anyway, you're going to be so surprised, because you know me, and you know I hate to drive and and I do not care about cars. At all. But the other day I saw a great looking car. I said to Jonathan: whoa. What kind of a car is that? And he said it was a Porsche Panamera.
:-)
FOlks, this is a VERY cool car. SO nice, I started singing a song about it. To the tune of Guantanamera. "Porsche Panamera, I want a Porsche Panamera....Porsche Panameeeeeraaa...we need a porsche panamera..."
We're not getting one. I think--well, how much do they cost?

JAN BROGAN - Oh Hank, please don't tell me there is another Porsche my husband is going to want. We have one, and I hate driving in it. And not because I'm evolved. But because it's too low to the ground and you feel the road. Which I guess is the point, since its a sports car, but I hate going fast. If I were going to long for a car, I'd long for one of those antique Bentley's or even a Model-T Ford. Something you only drive on Sundays and that you usually see parked at ice cream places.

HALLIE EPHRON: Hold the car. Don't need no boats. Can't tell the difference between really good champagne and a 12-dollar bottle. I'd lust after cashmere but it makes me itch. Expensive jewelry makes me nervous.

We're dreaming here, right? The one thing in this world that I would love love love to have is my pick, a print from the original elephant folio edition of Audobon's Birds of America. The Flamingo or the Gyrfalcon or Avocet or Arctic tern or America White Pelican.

LUCY BURDETTE: Rhys, ditto on the Robert Redford! Hallie, cannot believe you didn't say something about decadent comestibles...like here's some mail-order ham and bacon, recommended by my new friend Scott Haas, from whom you'll hear next week: Gatton Farms Bacon, found at http://www.fatherscountryhams.com You will salivate just reading about it.

But what I really, really, really want is to see AN APPETITE FOR MURDER on the New York Times extended bestseller list. Doesn't have to be the top twenty, that would be over the top.

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Lucy, every wish I made on the first star for a year before my last book came out was, "Please let it be on the New York Times list!" And it was! So get star-gazing, and I'm sure AN APPETITE FOR MURDER will do you proud as well.

As for my dream Christmas gift, it's that Ross and I could take an exotic, warm-weather, grown-ups-only getaway. I'd like to be in Barcelona and stay up eating and drinking til midnight, or see Carnival in Rio or go back to southern Africa for another safari. But with two kids still at home, any holiday we take is a family holiday, which can also be lovely except... with one in college, our funds only stretch as far as a weekend up the coast here in Maine.

Of course, I know this is something that can be solved with time. I just worry that by the time we've paid our last tuition bill, the only place we'll want to visit will be the Bide-a-Wee Rest Home!

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I'm with Lucy on the wishing for the New York Times Bestseller list!!! Hallie, cashmere makes me itch, too. Don't especially want a fancy car--I'm perfectly happy with my three-year-old Honda. And Rhys, I agree, Robert Redford is looking a bit worn.

But if we are going for real fantasy here, I'd like to have a Christmas in an English country cottage. With snow. And fairy lights. And a fire. And carols in the village church. Christmas pudding and long, cold walks across the fields with the dogs. With a nice cuppa or a wee dram waiting. (And no murders!)

RHYS: So who would like to share his or her secret longings? And who got exactly what they wanted for Christmas?