Christmas festivities

Ok-so it's New Year's Day already, and I haven't said a word about Christmas- or other monumental events- which we'll get to in the next post.

We have had the pleasure of many small celebrations leading up to Christmas Day. On December 16, we went next door for a holiday event. Our neighbor, Beth, is some sort of forensic scientist at the Cornell vet school, so we had the opportunity to meet and greet other Cornellians as well as our neighbors up the street. It was a very pleasant evening - no photos.

On December 17, we went to nephew Rich and Diane's beautiful little house in New Hartford to celebrate the Hollister side of Christmas. I do have photos of the elegant table setting (and some of the folks too) but I saved them on my computer at work. We thought Tom had them too, but we can't find them, so we will post them later. AND - we celebrated Chandler's 16th birthday. more on that later.

On December 20, we attended Tom's office Christmas party at the Ithaca Country Club. Great hors d'oeuvres, pasta with made- to- order toppings, drinks, and conversation made for another enjoyable evening. No pictures.

On Christmas Eve, we entertained my sister Judy and nephew Alex, and niece Susan, Rob & Ian. I made chicken riggies, which is a regional Italian dish from the Utica/Rome area, although many Syracuse restaurants (and even one in Lansing) has this on the menu. Candlelight services at our church ended the day for us, but it just wasn't the same without snow.

Christmas Day we visited with Tom's sister Shirley and niece Karen, Denny and Jimmy in Cortland, and stuffed more food and coffee in our already overfed bodies. Yummy pie!

The rest of the week leading up to New Year's has been quiet and uneventful. No travel, no parties, no work. We've been eating, reading, cleaning the attic, going to the gym, and in general being bums. But tomorrow will be back to workfor both of us!