Umm. First cup of Green Mountain Holiday Blend this season as the sun rises on this chilly morning before the solstice. I still haven't been out to the park this week but I'm heading over there as soon as it warms up a bit.

I finally have some idea of who's coming and when. Only one overnight guest who will be going back to Philly on Christmas Day so I'll do the goose on Monday and the locals can join us then or Tuesday, as they wish.

My cousin is bringing my aunt and uncle up here on Saturday for Portuguese kale soup so I don't have to try and transport food, etc. down to Ithaca, thank you, thank you.

I feel more and more regret about not having a tree but maybe Jim and Erik will look for a Charlie Brown tree tomorrow. I do have a noble fir wreath on the inside of the front door (faux magnolia leaf wreath on the outside) so we have some evergreen fragrance wafting through the house.

I don't know what to do about my food diary the next few days. I don't have the time to enter a bunch of recipes that I use infrequently anyway, so I'm just going to come as close as I can with whatever I find in the database and leave it at that.