holiday hijinks

We’re back from our holiday travels/vacation and it was a wonderful time. Here are a few highlights:

–the Burning River Brass concert at the Metropolitan Museum of Art with my sister, in front of the baroque-angel-laden Christmas Tree:

–our menorah partially aflame in honor of Hanukkah:

–a healthy helping of Mom’s homemade minestrone, which Andrew continues to rave about:

–an equally relaxing and stimulating trip to one of my favorite yarn shops, the Yarn Boutique in Rochester, where I greedily snagged that sunshine-colored skein of Malabrigo Rios in “Sunset”:

–a bit of pottering in the kitchen with Nigella Lawson’s Salted Caramel Sauce poured over freshly-popped popcorn:

–an all-hands-on-deck wintry wonderscape creation for our holiday table that featured all manner of tasty cake houses, colorful candies and candy trees, incredible frosting skills, and Joe’s “vision” to bring it all together:

–proof, courtesy of me and my sis Alex, that perhaps great minds do think alike:

–a holiday tipple in the form of prosecco + pomegranate liqueur, which my brother cleverly dubbed “The Pom Bomb”:

–a baked Santa for dessert, created and decorated by my sis Gabrielle by hand, because she IS that good (and yes, he tasted as good as he looked, too):

–the annual pilgrimage to the massive holiday train display at The Garden Factory in Rochester, to see all of the changes and updates to the train layout, to check out what’s new, and to enjoy seeing old favorites:

–and one very happy little shih tzu named Coco enjoying her new blanket, courtesy of Gramma:

I can’t believe that 2011 is nearly over – what a year it’s been. Next time, maybe we’ll talk about some knitting resolutions for 2012? And maybe I’ll even have actual pictures of knitting!?! Honest!