christmas 2009

Well, it was great. It all started on Christmas Eve, as Ami and Ellie assembled a delightful Christmas Eve Dinner.



















You can see the snow through the window -- we did have a white Christmas! It had diminished somewhat since the original snowfall, but we still had a good 18" on Christmas Day. Unfortunately, that night it warmed up and rained. So by now the snow is suddenly all gone.

Anyway, Ami thought it would be fun to create a traditional Danish Christmas dinner in memory of our time there. The main course is fleskesteg, a pork roast with the skin left on, so that it becomes all crackly. It may sound sketchy to our American readers, but I can assure you, once you try it there's no going back.

There was also rødkål, a pickled red cabbage, a critical accompaniment to the pork; carmelized potatoes; and even rugbrød. And we added some American concessions as well, like the most amazing white rolls you have ever had, and a delicious lime-vanilla punch.



















After working through all of that, I was feeling pretty satisfied. But wait, there's more! Ris a l'amande finished off the meal. This French rice pudding is inexplicably served at every Danish home during Christmas. After you taste it, you can see why it crosses international boundaries so easily.



















In the longstanding Hart tradition, chairs were then set out for each member of the family (Harriet the Cat had to make do with just a stocking). The kids set out egg nog and cookies for any visitors that night who hadn't already foundered on ris a l'amande. The Christmas story was duly read, and two very excited kids were herded into bed.

Christmas morning was filled with the expected deluge of great presents.





































Ellie and Nico both received a large quantity of books, which Santa had apparently managed to obtain used for practically nothing. Ellie found this very distracting, and kept trying to read even while opening other presents. Nico, on the other hand, was dazzled by his new train table. Between the two of them, we had many pauses throughout the morning. Which is cool, of course.



















Ellie's favorite book of the day was "Lunch Lady," a terrific graphic novel from Aunt Laur. I saw Ellie read it three times clear through that day.



















After general playing around with the Christmas loot, we headed over to our great friends the Riches for Christmas Dinner. The collaboration was intense.



















But the results were delicious! Duck a l'orange -- and properly done, not greasy, mind you -- provided the mainstay, with too many other interesting side dishes to mention here.




































I was proud to contribute Stripey Jello, a traditional recipe in my family that has been handed down through the centuries. It may not have a fancy name in a foreign language, but come on, ya gotta have Stripey Jello for Christmas. It went over well -- even Monica liked it, that same Monica who generally disdains the whole Jello genre.



















So as I said at the beginning, it's been great. But wait, I'm sure you're saying, what about Harriet? Was she remembered by the denizens of the North Pole? The answer is yes. (I would hate to face Ellie's reaction if Harriet was left out.) Her main present was a catnip mouse, which has proven very popular indeed.

Harriet vs the catnip mouse from Alex Hart on Vimeo.

Merry Christmas to all! And now, back to work!

snowed in!

The big one finally hit -- at last, a nor'easter worthy of the name. Official snowfall totals are 19-25" in this area, and that sounds about right from our experience here, although it can be much higher where it was blown into drifts.

Our neighbor across the street, who has lived here since the 12th century, claims the last time it snowed this much here was 1978. I hope he's exaggerating, because I'd love to have one or two of these every winter.

It started yesterday (Saturday) around noon, and slowly built up through the day. By nightfall it was coming down steadily.





































This morning we all went out to explore the new landscape. The kids were pretty excited.























































Ellie and Nico had a lot of fun figuring out what to do with it all. Snowballs were thrown, various forms of sliding took place.



















The neighborhood looks so picturesque now -- kind of the classic winter look.























































Let the shoveling begin! Ami wisely purchased two shovels a couple days ago, so we both attacked. In some places it was like building the transcontinental railroad... inching toward each other as we carved through the snow.



















Veni, vedi, vici.









































































Ami couldn't resist.



















We hope it lasts through Christmas!

Belated Post - Montauk

When Mom and Dad were out, we all took a trip out to Montauk - the tip of Long Island. Sadly, the lighthouse was not open, but we did stay, and Alex, the kids and I walked around the tip. The kids had a great time. The were especially excited to see the "fallen castle." I'm not sure what it was originally, but they enjoyed imagining why it fell and who lived in it.



Once around the tip, the kids were delighted to play in the surf. Things were going smoothly until they climbed on a big rock and a wave overtook them. Nico was nearly washed out to sea, but thanks to a nearby fisherman, he wasn't. They have both decided they never want to go to the beach again. We'll see how long that lasts. (The pictures are from before they were drenched.)

"A Grandpa"

Ever since Granddad Anderson left, Nico has been proclaiming, "When I grow up, I want to be a grandpa!" Previously, his life's goal was to become a prince. I think a grandpa is more likely.

Today I asked him, "Why a grandpa?" He informed me grandpas are grown-ups that like kids and having fun. Dad - you apparently made a good impression.

Just one example of the fun things grandpas get to do:






I sincerely hope Nico does get to be a grandpa when he grows up. Until then, he's got two cool grandpas to look up to. I just wish they'd both visit more often.... David, we've got a guitar here just waiting for you.

home work

Today was Gutter Day. Fortunately, this did not involve crude jokes or vulgarities. Instead it was the actual gutters under consideration. We borrowed a big ladder from our neighbor and cleaned 'em all out.

And boy did they need it. I have no idea when they were last cleaned. Most of them had several inches of beautiful compost clogging up the works. But no longer!

A couple of the lines actually had plants growing on them. Here's one that had developed an impressive root system. If you look closely, you can see the plant still growing out of it. Yes, that's all roots.























So yeah, just another thrilling day here in Outland.

Alex's Birthday

Alex is old! At least he thinks he is. He seems pretty much the same to me.

We had the great fun of celebrating Alex's birthday last week while my Mom and Dad were in town. His birthday was on a Sunday, so we couldn't exactly make a whole day of it, but we did make a whole dinner of it.


Alex chose, for his meal of the day, pork loin, rolls, mashed potatoes, tasty cheeses (Pyrenees Basque Sheep, Moulis Breisis, Uniekaas Reserve, and Delice De Bourgogne), and other various tidbits.

The kids had a great time "wrapping" the gifts with their own homemade wrapping paper. They had an equally delightful time when Alex tried to guess what was inside. "An old shoe" was their favorite hypothesis, but Alex was pretty pleased when it turned out to be something more fun and/or needed.






Happy Birthday Alex!

Nico the Mad

After informing Nico he could only have dessert upon eating four bites of peas, he declared he would give me a "yucky piece of a slug" for my birthday unless I relented.

Are there any bits of a slug that are not yucky???

All Hallows Eve

This year, the festivities began with the much-anticipated Halloween Costume Parade. Ellie and her friend, Abby, have been planning this event for months. They worked out exactly how they wanted it, and all Abby's mom and I had to do was facilitate their wishes. The general idea was to have Ellie and Abby leading a parade carrying Halloween banners. To commence the parade, two kids (specifically Nico and Grace), in bathing suits so they did not get wet, were to drop mentos into diet coke setting off a grand entrance for Ellie and Abby. Nico and Grace were to then throw candy to the crowds as the parade passed by.

We had to make a few changes. Abby's mom and I ended up dropping the mentos in the diet coke, which worked surprisingly well, and we decided against swimsuits. The entrance was great! (Although a bit more involved, you can get the general idea here). Ellie and Abby came in carrying their banners and leading a host of neighborhood kids down the block for a grand parade. The candy throwing, however, got a bit out of hand as the kids lobbed the candy as hard as they could at the spectators. Luckily no one was injured. All in all it was a great parade.... Great job Ellie!!! Alas, I have no pictures to show for it since I was manning the diet coke. If any of you (ahem, Mom and Monica) have any pictures to donate for the cause, I'd love to post them.


As for the important business of trick-or-treating, we struck out early to avoid rain, and therefore went in daylight. The dark of night seems more appropriate, but it was fun all the same. We ventured to the neighbors and up and down the block a bit. Nico made an excellent, and very serious knight. His main criteria for a costume this year, was involvement of a sword. Ellie was a sassy black cat, and the cutest one around. Alex and I were re-runs from years past, and Granddad Anderson was the spooky ghost. It was a great trick-or treating party.

The kids got more than enough candy (I'm hoping they completely forget it exists!), you can see the evidence in their "line-ups", a Halloween tradition past down from the Hart faction.















Halloween - what a great holiday!

grandma visits

Today is Halloween, so I hope that tomorrow we'll have some great trick-or-treat pictures. For now, a quick update on October...

The highlight for us was the visit of my (alex) mom earlier this month. She was here for just over a week and we all had a great time.

She came armed with early birthday presents... note, anyone looking for presents for these kids might consider Playmobils. They are wildly popular among the younger set in this house.



















We had some great dinners together. Ellie and Nico always wanted to sit next to Grandma, as close as humanly possible.



















My mom showed us some high-end bottling techniques. The peach jam is sooooo good.



















We visited our local botanical garden, the Bayard Cutting Arboretum. It's small but has some great features.



















Including this turtle!



















They had some beautiful old Japanese Maples.



















There was a dahlia exhibit going on while we were there. I had no idea there were so many kinds of dahlias.



















We also visited a pumpkin farm on the North Shore of the island. There are lot of these farms around, and most of them offer other entertainments for kids. We have learned by hard experience that the quality of the establishments vary, however. Fortunately this one was of the higher caliber.

They had a bounce-room...



















...a haybale maze...





































... and of course, loads of pumpkins.



















A lot of the "farms" are just empty fields with a lot of pre-picked pumpkins strewn about on the ground. I fear this gives kids the impression that pumpkins magically materialize in such places... kind of defeats the purpose of exposing city kids to agriculture.

This place was a real farm, you had to saw or tear off the pumpkin from the stem. They also had lots of other types and colors.





































The results were great!



















Thanks for coming out, Mom! We hope to see you again soon!