hey jud

Now imagine that blog is the number 1 word of the year. Well, it is!

On Thanksgiving Day, these turkeys were right outside our window, in the strawberry patch, giving thanks for themselves.

For those times when nothing arrives in my posting idea box, I will be using a special post category of just exactly six words, no more no less, and I'll aim for every other day. I thought of starting with 'make a list, check it twice', but have since decided that the words, since there are only six involved, should be original. The idea itself is not original and came from a magazine article featuring six words by a number of famous authors.

She ate with chopsticks; he didn't.

Even though they've been way over done, I love the white twinkly lights strung everywhere at this time of year. They look especially neat twined around the trees along the center walkway of the Commonwealth Mall. When used without other distracting colored lights, and NOT otherwise, I even like to see them decorating houses as I drive past. It was maybe five or six years ago when they started becoming popular. Perhaps whoever started it got their inspiration from raindrops twinkling on a tree, like this one in City Square.

First blog was word of the year. Now our favorite blog tool maker, along with her partners and friends, have been named PC Magazine's People of the Year 2004. We're proud of all of them.

This year, instead of our regular restaurant visit on Christmas Eve, we came back from the Nutcracker and changed into chef's gear. Each of us had a dish assignment, while Meg, being the semi-professional, had several. Because we each had a hand in it, I think the result was better than any restaurant meal, though it did tax the available space in our kitchen. Oysters on the half shell accompanied our champagne toast to the season, followed by butternut squash soup with creme fraiche and fried sage leaves. The main course was goose , a Christmas tradition for some but the first time for us, served with chestnut stuffing, incredible Michael-whipped potatoes and brussel sprouts in brown butter. Salad of mache and sliced beets with goat cheese preceded the Swedish wine nut roll dessert, a pastry moistened with wine and filled with walnuts, raisins and Boysenberry jam and specially delivered from Los Angeles. We didn't get pictures of everything but you get the idea of who did what. Special thanks go to Leecee for the truly amazing dessert. Wine and the spirit of Christmas flowed, making us happy and thankful for all being together.