Christmas in Ithaca
7 Snowy Days with Family & Friends in the
North Country
This Christmas we may have hit a record -- we
took over 450 photos of our Christmas week in Ithaca! Lucky for our blog
readership, I've managed to pick less than 50 to highlight our wonderful holiday
trip.
When we got to Ithaca, it had been snowing for days and the temperature was having trouble rising beyond the teens. It was freezing, but beautiful:
We had lots of time before Christmas to visit with family, especially since (for the first time?) we barely had any last minute presents to pick out! So almost every day, we went between Gramma's house (where we stayed), Mom & Charlie's, and Dad's place where we had one afternoon with Jean and David before they headed to New Hampshire (check out the new ping pong set up... Skip won overall with Amity as a close second) -- with occasional jaunts to see Aunt Brenda and Uncle Ed. For once I took control of the camera, so that Marc could be in a few snaps:
We had time to hang around Ithaca -- in the Commons (check out Brenda's bag display at the Ithaca Artisans shop!), around campus, at the State Diner... we even got to visit friends. We had a great dinner with Odin and Charly (can't believe we forgot the camera!) -- regardless of being pregnant and puking daily, Charly hung out for a long, decadent meal. We also got to do drinks with Ed & Connie and Mata Swenson at the Chapter House... it was great to be back there. We even visited Odin & his dad at AccuFab (made our home welding operation seem a little lamer):
As always, an inordinate amount of our trip was spent eating. With Grampa's passing this year, we had a very nice time honoring his memory by cooking the meals he used to make for us -- from pizza, to Seafood Newburg, to Christmas morning coffee cake, even to the grasshoppers he used to make us on Christmas Eve. Not wanting him to miss out, we were sure to serve him up his own grasshopper (once we found his snow covered gravestone). Not a day or even meal went by where we didn't think of him or toast to how special he made Christmas for us.
On a few special occasions, we left the cooking to the experts. Brenda and Ed made an unbelievable Christmas meal with a big roast, tons of delicious sides, and a cobbler and bread pudding for dessert (among many other things). They also embarrassed Ed's mom and me by making us do Chanukah.
On the 26th, after a similarly embarrassing Chanukah stint, Charlie treated us all to some awesome lasagna in honor of Laurie's birthday. We got to do Christmas with Justin and Dassance too, since they couldn't join us for the actual day.
And how can I not mention Laurie's contribution to the food arts! She made gingerbread from scratch, worked with Marc to put it together and make sure it was structurally sound, and then worked with cousins Parker & Melissa to decorate. The more laughter coming from the table (and better the house started looking) the more the rest of the crowd wanted to join in and help. The result was incredible:
Finally, it wouldn't be a Christmas blog entry if there were no mention of presents! The best ones, as always, were homemade. We did pretty well with our new skills, making coat/hat/leash hooks for people out of horseshoes. But Amity knitted us all hats! And she & Justin baked biscotti, and Brenda sewed us all beautiful napkins with matching placemats! Even Ed's mom made Amity & I adorable little pincushion/thread holding mice. Of course, all of this was in addition to way too many thoughtful and overly generous gifts -- books and jewelry and clothes and toys and everything in between. Here are just a few of the exciting Christmas morning moments.
As usual, the end of the trip came out of nowhere, and we were forced to head home and get back to real life. While it's always bittersweet to come home and take down the decorations, it was pretty nice to get off of the plane to weather that was about 60 degrees warmer than Ithaca. And lets face it, if time keeps flying by the way it has lately, we'll be back in Ithaca trudging through the snow and drinking grasshoppers in no time!
When we got to Ithaca, it had been snowing for days and the temperature was having trouble rising beyond the teens. It was freezing, but beautiful:
We had lots of time before Christmas to visit with family, especially since (for the first time?) we barely had any last minute presents to pick out! So almost every day, we went between Gramma's house (where we stayed), Mom & Charlie's, and Dad's place where we had one afternoon with Jean and David before they headed to New Hampshire (check out the new ping pong set up... Skip won overall with Amity as a close second) -- with occasional jaunts to see Aunt Brenda and Uncle Ed. For once I took control of the camera, so that Marc could be in a few snaps:
We had time to hang around Ithaca -- in the Commons (check out Brenda's bag display at the Ithaca Artisans shop!), around campus, at the State Diner... we even got to visit friends. We had a great dinner with Odin and Charly (can't believe we forgot the camera!) -- regardless of being pregnant and puking daily, Charly hung out for a long, decadent meal. We also got to do drinks with Ed & Connie and Mata Swenson at the Chapter House... it was great to be back there. We even visited Odin & his dad at AccuFab (made our home welding operation seem a little lamer):
As always, an inordinate amount of our trip was spent eating. With Grampa's passing this year, we had a very nice time honoring his memory by cooking the meals he used to make for us -- from pizza, to Seafood Newburg, to Christmas morning coffee cake, even to the grasshoppers he used to make us on Christmas Eve. Not wanting him to miss out, we were sure to serve him up his own grasshopper (once we found his snow covered gravestone). Not a day or even meal went by where we didn't think of him or toast to how special he made Christmas for us.
On a few special occasions, we left the cooking to the experts. Brenda and Ed made an unbelievable Christmas meal with a big roast, tons of delicious sides, and a cobbler and bread pudding for dessert (among many other things). They also embarrassed Ed's mom and me by making us do Chanukah.
On the 26th, after a similarly embarrassing Chanukah stint, Charlie treated us all to some awesome lasagna in honor of Laurie's birthday. We got to do Christmas with Justin and Dassance too, since they couldn't join us for the actual day.
And how can I not mention Laurie's contribution to the food arts! She made gingerbread from scratch, worked with Marc to put it together and make sure it was structurally sound, and then worked with cousins Parker & Melissa to decorate. The more laughter coming from the table (and better the house started looking) the more the rest of the crowd wanted to join in and help. The result was incredible:
Finally, it wouldn't be a Christmas blog entry if there were no mention of presents! The best ones, as always, were homemade. We did pretty well with our new skills, making coat/hat/leash hooks for people out of horseshoes. But Amity knitted us all hats! And she & Justin baked biscotti, and Brenda sewed us all beautiful napkins with matching placemats! Even Ed's mom made Amity & I adorable little pincushion/thread holding mice. Of course, all of this was in addition to way too many thoughtful and overly generous gifts -- books and jewelry and clothes and toys and everything in between. Here are just a few of the exciting Christmas morning moments.
As usual, the end of the trip came out of nowhere, and we were forced to head home and get back to real life. While it's always bittersweet to come home and take down the decorations, it was pretty nice to get off of the plane to weather that was about 60 degrees warmer than Ithaca. And lets face it, if time keeps flying by the way it has lately, we'll be back in Ithaca trudging through the snow and drinking grasshoppers in no time!
Posted: Tue - December 27, 2005 at 02:11 PM
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Published On: Dec 31, 2005 02:32 PM
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Published On: Dec 31, 2005 02:32 PM