There is something satisfying about getting up early enough in the morning to get most of your tasks done before you really start the day...I haven't yet had a morning decaf and my pies are in the oven, my mince tarts, and two cheesecakes ready to bake for tomorrow. This year I am experimenting and I'll let you know how it goes: before pouring in the cheese mixture, I put mincemeat on a shortbread crust and cranberry on a graham crust. Once I made Eddy Lee a lychee cheesecake so why not experiment with the ingredients of the season?

Today is the arrival of my sister, Laurel, husband David and two of her five children, Rowan and Alyssa. Valerie arrives on the 27th. Audrey already lives in Ottawa. This means we'll only be missing Emily, who is in Australia at university. We also have my sister Andrea and her gang here, for the most part (missing son Evan and his wife Amanda who are due to have a baby soon), at least for dinner tomorrow. With these families, Bernie's sisters, cousin Jack and his wife, and my children's respective 'significant others', as well...we'll have good company.

No doubt I shall take a picture or two to share. In the meantime, safe and joyous celebrations to all, and a reading for your contemplation, shared the other day by my friend Kurt Hein in Oregon. I liked it so much I printed it and put it on the fridge in hope of memorizing. It's a good one to keep for any New Year's resolutions...yet to come.

'The Blessed Beauty often remarked;
"There are four qualities which I love to see manifested in people:
first, enthusiasm and courage;
second, a face wreathed in smiles and a radiant countenance;
third, that they see all things with their own eyes and not through the eyes of others;
fourth, the ability to carry a task once begun, through to its end.'
--Stories of Baha'u'llah, compiled by 'Ali'Akbar Furutan, page 51