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!