christmas eve

merry christmas . . 

sweet dreams . . 

gift making, gifts and dinner

lille juleaften

we had our holiday visit to ferrara's this morning. we met at 9:30 as korrina had to be at work at noon. korrina and i tried something different this year and split a bread basket of two mini cornetti and two large slices of panettone (along with the mochas you see above). all was delicious!

afterwards, we all ran errands in different directions. greg and i went to faicco's and two other stores in the neighborhood. morgan and harley went to trader joe's and veniero's for cookies. chanda did some christmas gift shopping. 

i wrapped several gifts with pluto . . 

and cricket.

and morgana made dinner: gnocchi with acorn and butternut squash, ricotta and parmean.

it was so good!

it was also wonderful to have deychen join us.

happy lille juleaften! happy little christmas eve.

fourth sunday of advent

 
on our way to visit kendall and aurélien this morning, morgan and i passed this frozen water bottle . . !

their sweet christmas tree underneath which we sneaked a few gifts!

morgan brought three books from london for him, and i had picked up a book titled flow and a yellow taxi cab car.

we chatted and drank hojicha tea with slices of apple and delicious cheese from saturday's green market. kendall shared her thoughts about several schools she had visited for aurélien to attend next year. applications are due in january.

reading the paddington bear book . . 

some of their tree decorations . . 

back at home i had a cup of bellocq's christmas tea with stollen . . 

and chanda fixed the lights on the tree.

and trimmed some of the lower branches.

our fourth sunday of advent meal . . (faicco's chicken sausage with einkorn penne pasta and sautéed kale and fresh spinach from our favorite farm at the green market).

cleaning up afterwards . . (while i spoke with korrina on the phone. she had run several errands in the cold weather today and was happy to be home again, relaxing with dinner and hot tea . . and wash the cat.)

decorating the tree . . 

pluto kept an eye on things . . of course.

hot chocolate . .

and caroling . .

the fourth light of advent is the light of you and i,

the light of love, of thought, to give and understand.

we also sang good king wenceslas, people look east, and children go, where i send thee.

people look east, the time is near,

of the crowning of the year. 

make your house fair as you are able,

trim the hearth and set the table.

people look east and sing today,

love the guest is on the way . . 

angels announce to man and beast,

he, who cometh from the east!

set every peak and valley humming,

with the word the lord is coming.

people look east and sing today,

love the lord is on the way.