December 25.....

... is almost over, and we've had an incredibly packed an social couple of days. Briefly: Andy and I went to to New York for two days with Ken and Linda, saw Don Carlo at the Metropolitan Opera, ate much spent time with Ethan and his friend Vanessa. Came back and plunged into Christmas preparations, picked up Joel and Sarah at the airport, came back and did more cooking, slept a night, got up and started cooking, did gifts, had Takeshi and Chiaki and Howard, Alice and Molly for big dinner, mucho desserts (Oh dear! raspberrypie, plum torte, Junior's cheesecake brought by Takeshi and Chiaki, Andy's chocolate mousse with whipped cream-- how lovely to have them all!