Our Christmas was a bit like yours Jerry, we spent an overnight with relatives and several of us worked together to have food and drink for many, a virtual family reunion as well as Christmas celebration. Delightfully, some old friends dropped in from out of state with nowhere else to go, and they brought nothing to the dining table but plenty in terms of enthusiasm, good will, and inspiration. So much fun when extra people are added to the mix. And this year there were new little kids, and a new daughter-in-law, and all that sort of thing. It had been awhile since this clan had grown boys tossing a football and teeny ones staring in wonder at a ceiling fan.

But how, next year, do we get more music and less food preparation?? Despite farming some of the cooking out to different branches of the clan, we were so exhausted both days by the traveling and food and wine and kitchen work that we never got to the music-making we half-planned.   Maybe we will have to go the Martha Stewart route-- do some heavy planning, and pre-make and freeze a lot of stuff next time.

We did get to attend a good candlelight service with carols, that was one of the best parts. Glad that was on the schedule before everything got truly crazy.

Well, I am babbling, I am going to put down my mug of hot cider and call it a night.   Wishing everyone at the kitchen table a nice midwinter rest and a roaring start to the new year.