On the first day of Christmas, my sister came to me... (holiday post #1, Dec 22)

... and so did our Montreal friends Mojo and Vincent! Yay! There was nasty freezing rain, but everybody made it here safely.

I was happy to have visitors to make me sit down and relax. So our evening consisted of lots of chilling out and chatting with good friends, eating lots of food*, watching (and snorting) the baby, and consuming many juicy homemade butter tarts and chocolate macaroons.

A baby is a bit like a fireplace... Heather, Mojo and Vincent bask in Rowan's glow.

All week, I had been madly running around trying to finish last-minute Christmas stuff - shopping, baking, trimming the tree, wrapping gifts, knitting - I *just* managed to finish the mittens I was knitting for Heather only an hour before she arrived - and of course taking care of Rowan. I was a bit stressed out and a bit tired, but very excited to have our first Christmas at home.

It was great to see Heather feeling mostly herself after having her appendix out earlier in December. And it's so much fun to play in the kitchen with Heather; she's even more of a foodie than I am! Dating a vegan chef can do that to you, I suppose. :-)

*note to self: the caribbean sweet potato and black bean gratin was yummy, make it again! It was in the Moosewood cookbook.