Agenda

1. 6:00 am - Make a (grocery) list; check it twice
2. 6:55 am - Go to Macrina right as it opens to have breakfast and pick up butter rolls; confusion reigns - they don't open until 8:00 today, turning away several unhappy customers
3. 7:00 am - Do grocery shopping. They are still stocking and just two other people are in the store.
4. 8:00 am - Have breakfast at home (I was starving!)
5. 9:00 am - Arrive at A & J Meats right as they open; purchase their special apple breakfast sausage.

The rest of the day will be spent cooking. My traditional holiday treats:

• Apricot and cashew "fruit cake"
• Russian tea cakes

For tonight and Christmas Day:

• For tonight, an elegant seafood stew - a recipe from my (fabulous cook) cousin Elise.
• Christmas Day breakfast will be pink grapefruit, cranberry coffee cake, and apple sausage.
• Christmas Day dinner this year is lamb chops, Provencal carrots, and spicy baked potato wedges.

Since we don't have any family here in Seattle for Christmas (my cousin Elise is in upstate New York), it's a just-the-two-of-us Christmas.

Merry Christmas, all!