Christmas Eve Eve

It's the night before the night before Christmas and the house is clean, presents are wrapped and occupying a metric ass-ton of space under the tree, and a boozy Christmas cake is in the oven. As I was making the batter, I heard sirens right outside my house, so I rushed outside to make sure everyone was merry and bright. To my delight, our local small-town fire department was pulling Santa Claus right through our neighborhood on the back of one of their fire engines! We exchanged waves and smiles, and just like that, they were gone. What an unexpected treat. Now if only we could have a white Christmas...

Happy Owl-idays!

I'm creating a love affair with gift wrap. I can't help it. It's so pretty. Sure, I'm mixing it up under the Christmas tree this year...a couple varieties of snowmen, a good old-fashioned Santa here and there for the kids, some delicate damask-ish swirly foil and velvet papier, but no one can deny there's a definite theme unfolding...

Nostalgia and Nutmeg

Yesterday was my beloved Nana's birthday. She would have been 85. She loved Christmas, and every year she turned her house inside out to create a winter wonderland. She threw a huge Christmas Eve party for which she spent the entire week before the fete baking and cooking and preparing to show her friends and family how much she loved them. She was the most loving and influential person to ever grace my life.

In honor of her birthday and her love of Christmas, we made her signature Lebanese anise flavored dessert pastry called ka'ak. It smells and tastes like love.

O' Christmas Tree

We decided to cut our own tree down this year. In California, we didn't really have the option of perusing a tree farm until we found the perfect tree. Typically we just had to pick the least egregious of the dry, sparse, pre-cut, and over-priced trees available to us.

But this year...

...pine scented paradise...

...a free air show...

...a beautiful sunset...

...and this gorgeous girl. Welcome to the family!