Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house not a creature was stirring not even a mouse….

It is rumored that the finished Zeppole tastes best if the honey is allowed to soak in overnight. We may never know if this is true.

The next element of our holiday tradition is the preparation of the Zeppole (fried dough balls covered in honey and sprinkles). Years of practice have made for a very efficient production line approach, only slightly less efficient than the speed with which the finished product is consumed.

Songs celebrating Christmas and a candle lighting ceremony define the evening service at First Parish our Unitarian Universalist church. Always a point of great controversy among the children afterwards is whether their father has a three or four note vocal range. Not in question is how much we enjoyed sharing the evening with Aunt Susan.

Our family begins every Christmas Eve with dinner at a Chinese restaurant. Chang An being our local favorite. Something of a present for Jeanine who will spend much time cooking over the next several days this tradition dates back many years and I can no longer recall how we came to decide on Chinese cuisine. Maya ordered the entire meal and was honored to do so.

Jeanine’s sister Susan is joining our family for Christmas and was on hand to see her nephews compete as was Maya who put a headlock on me when I tried to kiss her. Immediately after the wrestling, I took off for an indoor soccer game. Witnessing both of my boys wrestling must have stirred some deep passions in me because I produced a career high five goals in one game helping my team to a big victory.

Nicolai had an outstanding match defeating his opponent with a pin in the second period but not before executing two beautiful leg tackles, a Granby roll escape, and an absolutely perfect switch. He used several different pinning combination to win back points and finished the match with a very sweet cradle.

This evening I got to see Kyle wrestle for the first time ever. It is only the second match of his life and what he knows of the sport he has learned in two weeks. Despite his novice status, he possess great natural abilities and the intensity of a wild bull. He was soundly beating his opponent by a score of 4-1 well into the second period when he made a beginner’s mistake that cost him the match. If he elects to stay with the sport I believe he will quickly overtake many wrestlers with years of experience. Nicolai has been very encouraging and generous with his time, helping Kyle to come up the very steep learning curve.

No sooner than I arrived in California, I was on my way back to Boston. Just enough time for an important three-hour meeting in Thousand Oaks. Flying at this time of year is a real hassle, but the beautiful scenery makes up for it.

This evening I got to enjoy the sunset twice, both times through the same window of an airplane taking me to California for a brief but critical meeting tomorrow. The sun first set while I was on the ground preparing for take off. During our ascent the sun reappeared and looked as if it was rising as we climbed to higher and higher altitudes. One we reached our maximum height the sun started to set again although very, very slowly since we were chasing it into the west. Unfortunately, the window was not very clean and limited the photographic opportunities.

Cookie making is on the agenda for today. Maya and friend Allison prepare Christmas cookies. Note the efficiency of Maya’s layout. I assist by preparing to eat the resulting cookies, a very important and often overlooked job.

This evening we hosted 4 of Nicolai’s and 1 of Maya’s friends for dinner and an informal holiday gathering. Jeanine joins the kids for an extended match of Catch Phrase, a great multi-generational game that had everyone in hysterics by the time it was finished. Because we waited so long to get our Christmas tree this year (due to my travel in Asia) we had only very tiny ones to pick from. None the less, it is a happy tree and Maya in particular found it easier to decorate. A nice fire and holiday music from the Sonos completed the ambiance. Neither of the boys wrestled today, Kyle because of an injury and Nicolai because he was exhausted from two soccer games he played late last night. I photographed the match anyway and constructed a website for the team (CCHS Wrestling Team).

Kyle injured his elbow in wrestling practice today and will miss his match tomorrow. Hannah came over after dinner to offer a measure of comfort, and we enjoyed having her with the family as we trimmed the Christmas tree and enjoyed the season’s first fire.

This evening, the Sonos Cambridge office celebrated the holidays with a gathering at the Blue Room. Featured activities included a music trivia contest, numerous raffles, and a version of pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey that we call dock-the-controller-in-the-cradle.