a cold and icy day

 

zuzu and . . 

cricket . . keeping an eye on anything that flits by . . 

everything has frozen as it's in the mid 20's today.

greg worked from home and we had lunch together (my plate is reminiscent of my breakfasts at gail's cafe in london on the fulham road where i would get a salami sandwich on a small brioche roll with a pickle).

here are a few pieces from my clay creche that my mom bought for me years ago when greg and i first moved to the neighborhood. there was a lovely shop on west 10th street, across from jefferson market library that sold beautiful pottery from local artisans and from south america. so far the cats are leaving it alone, so i might add the rest of the figures.

and on the piano . . 

greg made deviled eggs this evening to take to his holiday work party tomorrow. he even walked to the container store for three medium size containers to put them in.

they look very yummy!

i mainly packed a small padded envelope for london today . . it takes me ages to do and it will supposedly take three weeks to get there.

snow day and the third sunday of advent

we were out early for a walk in the snow . .

zuzu enjoyed watching the snow whirl by . . 

the view from the living room window . . 

breakfast with chanda .  .

talking on the phone with morgan . .  

----

this evening we welcomed the third sunday of advent . . 

the first light of advent is the light of stones,

light that lives in seashells, in crystals and in bones.

the second light of advent is the light of plants,

plants that reach up to the sun and in the breezes dance.

the third light of advent is the light of beasts,

light of hope that shines in the greatest and the least.

and we sang:

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.

furrows be glad though earth is bare,

one more seed is planted there,

give up your strength the seed to nourish,

that in course the flower may flourish -

people look east and sing today!

love the guest is on the way.

birds though ye long have ceased to build,

guard the nest that must be filled,

even in the hour when wings are frozen,

he for fledgeling time has chosen -

people look east and sing today!

love the bird is on the way.

it's very cold now, too . . when chanda returned from visiting friends she said everything was frozen outside; sidewalks and streets were icy and chunks of snow were falling from the trees. 

and there is much to catch you up on with korrina's new job! today was her sixth day of work. of course there is much to catch up on with everything . . i will try as these next days fly by . . (here's yesterday morning).

an early start to saturday, santa lucia day

 
sunrise this morning . . 

i let my lussekatt dough rise overnight (in the back bedroom with the door closed so the cats wouldn't get to it) and i baked it around 6:30 am as i was up for the second time during the night cleaning up after pluto (he's had terrible loose stools after taking some medication that was supposed to help his irritable bowel syndrome).

saffron buns are always the best fresh out of the oven.

cricket and zuzu kept an eye on me while we waited for the buns to be done . . pluto was on the floor looking up at me . . hoping for any food that i might be kind enough to give him.

i made myself coffee too, and listened to the quiet of the apartment building in the early morning.

sunday, december 7th

delicious chocolates for st. nicholas day . . 

greg and i took a walk in the late afternoon to a coffee shop we had never been to before . . 

nutcrackers along the way at the local dry cleaner and tailor shop . . 

we shared a pot of creamy hot and sweet cardamom coffee. i didn't think we would drink it all . . but we did . . and i worked on my knitting (a joji locatelli pattern from her mystery shawl knit-a-long).

we stopped on the way home for kitty litter and cat food . .

and to admire st. anthony's creche . . i sent photos to my sister who had attended a special creche festival at her church where she had included a pretty white one of our grandmother's (mom's mom):

----

at home we had dinner with chanda and lit our wood advent wreath for the second sunday of advent . .

and played a round of bananagrams . . happy st. nicholas day, and happy advent.

reading the local neighborhood paper

 

a blustery day

 

walking milly and pics from london

milly and i went for another walk by the river today . .  

and there's till goldenrod in bloom . . 

morgan and harley were by the lake district with harley's mom and brother and sister-in-law (and newest little one):

it's just so beautiful! (morgan mentioned that harley's mom likes to go for hours long walks! do morgan and harley last that long too?)

your italian restaurant

i've been wanting to visit gene's restaurant on 11th street with greg. we decided to go this evening and everything was delicious. i had eggplant parmagiana and greg had lasagna. the tiramisu for dessert was especially good.

it was such a lovely evening out.