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| Just Ivan's because Nikita's was eaten. |
Holiday preparations were interrupted by a weekend trip to Orlando, FL for - you guessed it - Nikita's chess tournament. Nikita played better than he has in a while, placing him in the top 12% among 190 (!) 5th graders. In between games, the boys splashed in the pool and ate leftovers from L'Italianos Italian Ristorante; their Chicago-style pizza was better than Giordano’s. During the games, Ivan and I visited the Orlando Science Center and played ping-pong or watched DVDs at the resort. The best film was "How to Train Your Dragon 2" - the 3-D rendering is incredible!
The semester was winding down for me, so I was able to relax in Orlando by reading Outlander and knitting gift socks while listening to As You Wish. Once we got back from Orlando, however, I split my time between grading meetings at MIT and baking in the kitchen (to this and more typical Christmas music). I made chocolate chip-pumpkin bread and Beekman 1802's Generous Fruit Cake for gifts, as well as five types of Christmas cookies because my sister-in-law in CA (who typically sends us Xmas goodies) had a new baby at the beginning of the month. You can see the cookies below (clockwise from top left): Chocolate Crinkle Cookies, German Christmas Cookies, Peppermint Meringues, Cashew Butterscotch Bars, Cranberry Pistachio Biscotti. Five batches of cookies may sound like a lot of work, but it was tougher to keep my family away from them before Christmas Eve.
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| "Mom, do we have any desserts?" |
The baking (plus neti pot and Russian sauerkraut) may have helped me avoid the flu that affected 60% of the household. Nikita was spared as well, but came down with something milder right before Christmas. So, the boys didn't put up as many ornaments on the tree, and we stayed in, watching a ton of DVDs; "new" films included "The Lego Movie," "Up," and "Chef." The boys, however, thoroughly enjoyed their gifts from Santa and relatives. Nikita and Ivan received Legos and K’nex respectively, but the bulk of their gifts (below) came from their school bookfair wish lists. Christmas gift giving has never been easier.
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| Santa killed a lot of trees. |
Thankfully, we were all well enough to eat the important meals together. We had salmon and Roman-style spinach on the Eve, Kringle and pomegranate-cantaloupe fruit salad for breakfast, and turkey with all the trimmings for Christmas Day dinner plus Teddie's Apple Cake for dessert. Galina only wanted Nick’s pizza for her birthday meal, so I made her favorite lemon bars. For New Year’s Eve, we had turkey tetrazzini for supper and Georgian roast lamb for the midnight feast. With all the sweets, I didn't think it was appropriate to make Hoosier Sugar Cream Pie, but I resolve to compare it to Momofuku’s Crack Pie in 2015.
For now, I leave you with a funny conversation from one of our more lucid moments:
Galina: Santa will have a hard time riding this year because of the weather.
Nikita: Yes, but Santa has Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
Galina: Santa also has a red nose.
Nikita: Rudolph was born with a red nose.
Galina: Santa has a red nose from vodka.
