Tomorrow we host our first holiday meal here. I am running around ironing napkins and picking flowers. We have borrowed a brother to assist me in setting up. And I have come to a vital conclusion: We need more girls in this family. Raymond is doing a fine job, but somehow he just isn't sufficiently impressed over the way I used prickle balls from the backyard to raise the height of the flowers in the vase. Nor can I get any profound comments from anyone around here over whether these napkins look all right with those placemats. Although it was frequently exhausting, I miss the convergence of female creativity that erupted around holidays when I was growing up.