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.

holiday visits

we visited ferrara's cafe this morning (where morgan, harley and i were two weeks ago), as we usually do each year two days before christmas (lille julaften in norway).

fterwards, korrina did a little christmas shopping before going to work and greg walked to veniero's on 11th street for our christmas cookies (he said there was such a long line that they weren't doing their cafe service). meanwhile, chanda and i walked along mulberry street and visited a shop she likes along with strand books before walking across town and getting on the express train to 72nd street for our annual holiday visit with homeschooling friends.

they baked cookies and built a gingerbread house.

my friend olga's beautiful tree.

sweet nutmeg has the coziest couch with a beautiful view.

delicious vegetable soup (anything olga puts together is always delicious . . she's a gifted cook).

solstice lights . . 

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in london, morgan and their friend merlyn attended a performance of a christmas carol . . 

'tis the season!

morgan also sent a photo of harley and her cat summer enjoying a cozy time in front of a warm fire on the solstice . . 

little christmas eve

 

 at noon we all met at ferrara's to celebrate little christmas eve. it's been a few years since we've been able to do this.

 

my cookie plate . . and i still have one which i'll have now while i wrap a few presents.

 

 

morgan said it was the best strawberry tart.

 

cheesecake and canolis . . 

before leaving, i bought two small trays of tré coloré cookies to have when celebrating with my sister and her family on boxing day.

when we stepped outside the temperature had dropped from 50 to 28 degrees. it was cold and it was snowing.

the basilica of st. patrick's old cathedral . . 

we stopped at mcnally jackson bookstore on our way out. josh went home, korrina to work, chanda to rei to look at duffel bags and morgan to tj maxx . . while i continued to faicco's pork store, stopping on houston for this pic (and meeting up again with m and c). the walk home was bitter cold. (greg had left earlier to get back to work.)

pluto-under-the-tree

cricket has been busy this evening getting into the yarn bag and unwinding three balls, batting the ornaments and climbing the tree.