Christmas in New York

I hope everyone had a very merry Christmas!  It was a great holiday for us.  We got to visit with our neighbors and friends down the street quite a bit, which we always love.  Mr Snoop and I stayed in New York and had our first family Christmas in our home.  We celebrated with Mr. Snoop's parents, one of his sisters, and her boyfriend.  Several photographic highlights:

Mr. Snoop trying out this special hat/mask my parents brought back for him from Ecuador.  It was a huge hit with our neighbor's little girl.

M and N torment Shammy Boy.  It's what aunts and uncles are for.  Doesn't he look dashing (and thrilled to be) in houndstooth? 

This year, I was in charge of dinner, which was lots of fun but certainly tiring.  Mr. Snoop made beef wellington with the help of M and N.  For my part, these guys really came through for me on Christmas day:



Thank you, Junior League of Austin, for your marvelous cookbooks!

Last but not least, I got to break out my Christmas china for the first time!  A dear friend of the family has gifted my sister and I with a piece of Christmas china every Christmas.  We now have nearly full sets.  So here is our Christmas table.. simple but still pretty, I think.  The geraniums are from the plant at my work.

....and in case you were wondering, we did find tamales for Christmas Eve.  Delicious ones, I might add.

More on our Christmas vacation later this week!