We had a lovely day yesterday, and hope you did too.

First thing in the morning we opened stockings and presents with our oldest on zoom (who got up at 5am California time to be with us). In the photos below you can see our gifts. I gave my husband the Joshua series of books I remember liking before I met him (which he did not know), and he made for me a lovely white denim tissue box holder for our all white bathroom. Our older daughter gave me recently the ticket to Guadeloupe, as you may remember, and on Christmas, our younger daughter presented me with an absolutely gorgeous artist journal she made herself. I can’t wait to use it.

Then we went to a wonderful church service; the people photos in this post are of some of our friends there.

Then we had our Christmas dinner Swordfish with herbed lemon pepper butter, Caramelized Butternut Squash, Kale Salad with Pear, roasted asparagus, served with mangos, blueberries, and sparkling Martinelli’s. For dessert, James made his Tarte Tatin. Nothing new or revolutionary, just delicious, easy, tried and true favorites. It was perfect. (Later we had Hungarian Cookies.)

With just the three of us, with one guest for dinner, it was a quiet but wonderful day, complete with surprises, love, and remembering the reason for the season. So grateful!