holiday preparations

 i ran a few errands this morning, and was finally able to stop and take a picture of our local pharmacy's window display . . 

 in the afternoon, chanda and morgana finally rolled out butter cookies while i got dinner together.

 we decided to walk to washington square park for carol singing with the brass band (same band from december 11th . . ). it was very nice with neighbors mixed with tourists mixed with new york universary students. chanda shared a songbook with a couple from australia.

 christmas ornament pics:

 my piggy that i've had for years. i think i got him in germany.

 my beth ornament that the girls always hang on the bottom by the center . . 

 the jo ornament, always hanging on the bottom also, next to the beth ornament. when my mother first gave these ornaments to my sister and i (years and years ago!!!), she gave me amy and meg, and my sister jo and beth. we wordlessly exchanged . . !

hmmm, lovely crocheted snowflakes and i cannot remember who gave them to me, or where they're from . . (frustrating) . . 

 we have many ballerina ornaments given to the girls from grandparents and aunts and uncles . . 

 holly hobbie? from my childhood . . 

 a homeschooling craft fair ornament!

 flower fairy . . one the girls received from santa . . 

 for some reason i think this ballerina was given to me . . 

korrina's snow baby from my mom and dad . .

waiting for christmas morning . . 

after carol singing, we came home to a delicious dinner of linguini and clam sauce . . 

 with sparkling cranberry cider . . 

 dessert was biscotti (i made them this morning), butter cookies (morgana made the dough and she and chanda rolled them out . . i baked them . . ) and french chocolates and peppermint bark, both made by morgana.

 stollen from wallsee! korrina brought it home and for the first time i actually liked it. i've never cared for the store bought kinds . . but this was delicious. it has an almond paste log running through it. korrina said she made that part . . (she rolled the logs). 

after accompanying morgana on the guitar singing carols (good king wenceslas and silent night), greg read our annual christmas eve story, a visit from st. nick by clement c. moore who lived just a bit north of us in chelsea (most of which comprised his estate at the time, 1811) . .

but i heard him exclaim ere he drove out of sight

"happy christmas to all and to all a good night . .