Christmas Eve

It was very cold and stunningly beautiful this morning. The frost was thick on the grass, sparkling briefly in the sun before it melted.

Two cormorants stood on a log in the lake, faces held up and wings held out like curtseying courtesans to the warmth of the sun.

A RedTailed hawk surveyed the scene from a deodar tree, breast puffed up to twice its normal size for warmth and a covey of quail, equally puffed, scurried self-importantly around in a tree, chatting to each other.

Ozzie met his long lost cousin, or so it seemed. I have put a picture of them in the extras.

We met some long lost friends from Magnolia Street at Acre coffee and spent a pleasant half hour in the sun getting caught up. 

We were going to observe the Italian Christmas Eve tradition and  serve a "Feast of Seven Fishes"  but it is also a California tradition to serve fresh Dungeness crab, and the queue at the seafood counter was dauntingly long, so we opted for lamb.

It is my heartfelt wish for hope and peace for all of my Blip friends around the world. Whether you celebrate Christmas or not, I believe that this community inspires all that is best in people and I wish that for every one of you and your families with the hope that if we can all continue to reach out to those around us, we can, in these uncertain times, make the world a better place.