Christmas eve

Tiina and her family came over to celebrate the holiday.  The dinner table was a lovely melange of cultural traditions and flavors: braised beef short ribs (with wheat-free tamari and coconut crystals), kale salad with date and anchovy dressing, latkes, sushi rice, jello, lanttulaatikko (rutabaga casserole), porkanalaatikko (carrot casserole), rossoli (winter salad), joulutortut (Christmas star cookies) and pakastepuolukat karamellikastikkeella (frozen cranberries with caramel sauce).

Santa tracker on the computer screen.

It was wonderful fun having them over.  Amazing to think of the friendship born of a fateful meeting on a playground, by chance, five years ago.  Both our families have Finnish and Japanese blood woven into them, another coincidence.

I'm pooped.  Did not sleep well last night.  I think the combination of sleep deprivation and a bit of sugar intake at dinner (the coconut crystals, the pickles and pickled beets in the rossoli and the caramel sauce Tiina made special for me with agave and maple syrup) dealt my system a hit.  After our friends left I crumpled into a chair feeling simultaneously caffeinated and leaden.

In our little family, we continue a Christmas Eve tradition Cap grew up with.  Everyone chooses one small present from under the tree and opens it.  I opened a handknit mini-sweater ornament.  Cap opened a frame photo of him with the kids at Fenway Park.  Gem opened a set of watercolor pencils and a pack of watercolor paper ATCs (artist trading cards).  Sag opened this...

headlamp!

Our gifts remind us that we are loved, life is fun and we have much to be thankful for.