I think I can

12 minutes to midnight. I'm almost there. So tired, feeling strep-ish but I'm hanging in. :) We had a marvelous dinner of carrot-raisin salad, eggplant with tahini, Emeril's barbecued shrimp, champagne, wine and baguette. Then coconut cream pie and Julia's chocolate-almond cake for dessert (which, by the way, I made gluten-free for my mom by subbing brown rice and tapioca flours for the cake flour; you would never know; it was SO moist and good but did need extra cook time). Ah! It is so nice to have my parents here; the boys just love being with them, and I'm thankful for their relationship despite the geographic distance.

Happy New Year, everyone! I wish for all of you a happy, healthy, fulfilling 2013. I feel very grateful for all the good in my life, for all that's happened this year. I'd hoped to craft an Em-i-lis Year in Review but ran out of time and for now will simply say thank you.

Wait.... I made it. I saw the ball drop. Now I am racing to bed.

NYE

The children are still talking. Fortunately they spent a few hours at T's parents' this morning. I was able to clean, start a coconut cream pie, put away some Christmas stuff and get ready for my Mom and Dad to arrive. The boys and I are at the airport now, eagerly awaiting them.

Mom has always been an enormous fan of New Year's Eve; she played the trumpet in high school (first female 1st chair in the band!) and still plays Auld Lang Syne every Dec 31 at midnight. Hopefully Jack's plastic, though workable, trumpet will suffice tonight. Hell, if T and I stay up until midnight, I won't care if Mom burps the song. We've not stayed up since Jack was born. In any case, tonight will be as festive as it can be with Tom and I snorting our way through. Mom's allergic to wheat so I'm going to make burnt eggplant with tahini and pomegranate, a middle eastern carrot-raisin salad, shrimp some way and other items TBD plus champagne, the coconut cream pie and a Reine de Saba!

Salmon and Nutmeg

Not together but both good. How cute is our kitty?!?! I love him, and Percy is terribly handsome since his bath and groom.

While at the market this afternoon, I spied some lovely King salmon and meyer lemons amongst other goodies. Fast forward to dinner and it turned into slow-roasted salmon with candied lemon peel, cucumbers, crème fraîche, lime and cayenne. That plus sliced tomatoes, good bread a'toasted and some Bûcheron made for a very nice dinner.

Who can believe tomorrow is New Year's Eve? Wha??? Off to work on clearing my damn schnoz.