Christmas Eve

Hard to believe Christmas Eve is already upon us! Time certainly flies. Christmases of yore used to be all about the loot (when of a certain age), eating cookies, vacation, sleeping in, seeing friends, spending time with family among other things. But now Christmas is intimately tied up with thoughts of Connor, parenthood, and family, which is pretty much summarized my goals for this holiday season.

We enjoyed more of our unseasonably warm weather and spent some time at the park with the and doing some last minute shopping in Nob Hill in the early afternoon. We then went home and made our traditional Christmas Eve meal of leg of lamb and mint chutney with sides of mushroom risotto and orange-jicima salad. My parents joined us for an early dinner, with Connor sitting at the head of the table. He loved the risotto and even a few tiny bites of lamb. We finished the meal with a decadent chocolate amaretti cake made by Ali - so delicious that it likely join the tradition next year.

After dinner and just after dusk, we then had a few friends and neighbors over for a some drinks and cookies before heading out to look at the luminarias in our neighborhood. It was still relatively warm (at least compared to last year), so it made for a nice little stroll. There were hundreds and hundreds of luminarias lining the streets, and lots of people pushing strollers or leading dogs looking at the sights. Really beautiful, and it really is the thing that gets us both in the spirit of the holidays.

We put Connor to bed, and sent the parents off for their condo after a nice glass of port. Ali and I then finished off the evening with a wee dram of scotch. We sat under the Christmas tree and reminisced about the year past - our first one as parents. It's been a pretty good year and while certainly we are happy about making it through, we also feel like we had a pretty good time with it too!