what is family?

The holidays have always been a tricky time for me. Part of me gets really upset that somehow no matter how hard you try, the season is full of stress and anxiety. This is the second year that I've tried to alleviate some of that stress and frustration by spending the holidays away from my "family".

The flaw in this plan: I was missing something important and special....

Lucky for me, there are people out there who know I'm an idiot and didn't let me actually spend Christmas alone :) I am an idiot because somehow I forgot that "family" is a bigger circle of people than just those with whom we share our DNA. I discovered that even hundreds of miles from my parents, my Boston family was here for the holidays.

All day I looked forward to Christmas evening, when I knew Patti and Michele were coming over for dinner, wine, and lots of fun girl-time. We started the night with the 2007 Dominique Brunet Pinot Noir. This wine is a little sharp but dynamic. The color was dark fuschia and the body is light with cherry and a little spice. As a cheap-ish Pinot Noir, this wine ain't half bad--as a table wine, it's darn good.

Our second bottle was a gift from Patti - the 2008 Cortijo Rioja. This wine was soft and typical of Rioja. It had some jammy-ness and pleasant ripe fruit with a well-balanced finish. It complemented our holiday dinner very very well.

Our holiday feast was delicious! Patti made a cranberry, blue cheese, and pecan salad, Michele brought over a fruit platter and some cookies from Chris's Cookies. For the main event, I made lasagna with bechamel sauce.

Somehow I ended up with all the leftovers... needless-to-say, I've been eating lasagna and cookies for dinner every day since Christmas.