today started out totally chaotic - i had to take part in 4 unplanned panels this morning, and then afterwards had a video review with my prof for our triad counseling sessions, which is totally nerve-racking, but all turned out ok...    

then, this evening, we co-opted this week's thursday night dinner, which unfortunately got a little "iced out" and a bunch of people couldn't come.  this added to the "jew it up proper"-ness of the evening.  (i had made matzo ball soup, noodle kugel, and challah, and ben and i made latkes, but the fact that lots people couldn't come made the quantities i had made of some of these foods a little ridiculous...)  but it really was lovely - we played wii with the two other couple who came (which could only be done with our christmas tree turned off since the lights interfered with the sensors in the wii) and ate much too much.  the pictures above were taken during the pre-guest hour, the apron was necessary because of the extreme messiness of kugel liquids and liquids draining from shredded potatoes.  isn't it cute, though?  got it at ben's mom's shop and this was the first time i actually felt the need to use it.  sorry for the disjointed nature of this post... trying to do many things at once.