happy friday

I've been scarce here—still trying to catch up on life after having a stomach bug for a few days last week. It was the sort of sick where you're too weak to hold a book and the moving images on TV make you hurl. I never want to see a bottle of Canada Dry again.

We did buy a tree last weekend—and decorated it. Winston was responsible for the bottom quarter of the 8-footer. Yes, right where the ornaments are clumped. We—and I speak for the children and adults—managed to decorate the tree without breaking any ornaments. Though Simon is wondering what happened to the "ball" he made by taping together two styrofoam bowls, which he then colored green with marker that comes off on your hands whenever you touch it. An ornament he made in preschool. Three years ago.

I also did some baking—the wonderful gingerbread cut-out cookies, which we'll ice and decorate tonight. And, I made fleur de sel caramel, which skipped right past the soft stage on the candy thermometer, catapulting all the way to hard-crack. The result was one of the largest, and loveliest, batches of toffee I could ever have hoped for. More cookies are on the agenda for this weekend.

Last weekend, we also helped the Cohen-Murphys celebrate the Immaculatke. That's right, this year the Saturday of Hanukkah landed on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception—perfect for this blended Jewish-Catholic family. I ate latkes topped with a sea of applesauce and a dollop of sour cream, and the kids gorged themselves on sugar cookies cut into shapes of dreidls and Maccabees, then sprinkled liberally with blue sugar.

And, so as not to shock the system too dramatically at the start of the New Year, I began much-needed exercise this week: a yoga session at my friend Helena's house, which will be a regular Sunday morning event going forward, and a (very) short spin on my spinning bike.

Just about to kick off the weekend with Winston's music showcase, an annual event for the kindergarteners, which will be followed by cocktails somehow, somewhere.

But before I leave, as your reward for sticking through my blah, blah, blah, a Friday giftie: