One of the changes I made this year was to do away with paper wrappings and switch to re-usable cloth. This year we simply tied it on but next year I hope to begin turning it into fabric envelopes and drawstring bags. I don't think anyone was overly excited about the new method but I used stash xmas fabric and I'm sure it was much better for the environment. Chris's new hat was a good fit and we let the boys hook the xbox up to the TV to check out their new games (a very rare occurrence in our house to have the gaming on the tv). Just at the bottom of the picture you can see the top of my new spinning wheel. The gaming didn't last very long as the power went out around lunch time and was off all afternoon.

Thankfully, I'd baked my cake in the morning before the power went out. This is the pomegranate cake out of the current Fine Cooking. It's a light airy chocolate cake topped with a layer of pomegranate jelly over which you layer a chocolate glaze and a sprinkling of pomegranate seeds. I'd goofed the cake the day before so the boys had that plain one to each which they preferred. We prepped for dinner by candlelight but the power came back on in time to cook and we didn't have to wing it with the grill. My camera battery died just as we were sitting down to eat so I only have the one very blurry picture of dinner. We had a sirloin roast with shallots cooked in red wine, creamed wild mushrooms, horseradish Emmenthaler popovers and green beans with a meyer lemon sauce.