la bella luna

 

 the moon tonight is beautiful.

 

 we've been reading, playing games, and eating a lot of stöllen and gingerbread (and i've been working on a knitting project and catching up with the mandalorian series).  i've also made biscotti and butter cookies which i'll post in a week or so, as greg and i will be out on montauk for a little bit. i hope everyone is enjoying these twelve days of christmas.

 

 

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we opened san and family's gift this evening.

beautiful handmade mitts and a hat . .

and tea towels and tea tray . . thank you so much san, dave, ben and pip. they're such lovely gifts and whenever i wear the hat and mitts, i'll think of all of you across the pond.

a windy night

 

 

christmas carol

 

the kings they came from out the south,

all dressed in ermine fine;

they bore him gold and chrysoprase,

and gifts of precious wine.

 

the shepherds came from out the north,

their coats were brown and old;

 they brought him little new-born lambs--

they had not any gold.

the wise men came from out the east,

and they were wrapped in white;

 the star that led them all the way

did glorify the night

the angels came from heaven high,

and they were clad with wings;

and they brought a joyful song

the host of heaven sings.

the kings they knocked upon the door,

the wise men entered in,

the shepherds followed after then

to hear the song begin.

the angels sang through all the night

until the rising sun,

but little jesus fell asleep

before the song was done.

 

by sara teasdale (1884 - 1933)

the day before christmas

a holiday visit with friends and decorating the tree

 

 the days keep rolling by and we had a delicious dinner of salmon that i picked up from trader joe's today, during my day of running errands. we had a fun morning visit with our friends olga, sophie and sebastian at via carota, where we had a delicious egg omelette with artichoke hearts and cups of coffee and cappuccino. but i ran too many errands afterwards (after a very late night) and am now very tired. 

 

(we also walked a little in the neighborhood with them, looking at all the holiday storefronts, specifically the local mom and pop pharmacy and a new gift store that opened just a month ago--it was a fun time.)

 

we enjoyed decorating the tree with emily, telling her the stories behind the ornaments, and drinking the last of the herbal austrian tea along with having stöllen and french chocolates.

 

pluto loves lying beneath the tree in this manner . . facing in towards the stump. i guess it feels comfortable and safe to him.

i better get some sleep now.

the winter solstice and the conjunction of jupiter and saturn

you can see the light from jupiter and saturn as a small dot in the middle of the photo (it is a bit faint). we went out  at 5:30 and were excited to be able to see it (as were several other people near us down by the river). it's been about 400 years since they were so close together, and it's been about 600 or 700 years since they were so close together at night. it was beautiful and we were there just in time, for the clouds rolled in after this photo was taken.

greg and chanda put the lights on the tree this evening . . 

as i worked on more letters for georgia . .