End of 2012 on Mars

A very merry Christmas was had on Mars this year.

In addition to the stockings, mobile, & festive branch and paper cutouts, we had our many Christmas cards on display:

Holiday cheer from friends, family, the newspaper delivery person, Jimmy Carter's foundation (asking for money), & Budget Rent-A-Car

We also put a new lamp sent by Papa & Step-momma Desrosiers for Christmas in a place of honor in our very dark dining room. As you can see, it's a 2-foot-tall replica of "Dad's Major Award" from The Christmas Story:

I thought we should put it in the front window, like in the movie, but it casts the perfect amount of light in the dining room in the evenings, so there it will stay. And, of course, it adds a touch of class to our home, along with our Dogs Playing Poker picture in the kitchen.

On Christmas morning, we opened up our bounty of presents:

Zoey got in on the fun, too. Here she is opening a squeaky critter toy Mama & Step-papa O'Brien sent her:

After all the destructive fun was over, I put up Adrienne's Christmas gift: a painting for the transom window above her office. Someday we may ask Amanda's talented stained glass artist friend to make us a piece for that window; in the meantime, I made the painting in a stained glass style:

Then we got ready for our friend Brian to arrive, & for our Christmas Day festivities of delicious food & fantasy movies (The Chronicles of Narnia series) to begin!

He came bearing cherry & chocolate rugelach:

While Brian & Adrienne went out to the fish market to get ingredients for a special San Franciscan Italian seafood stew -- cioppino -- I minded the tray of rugelach (minded several straight into my belly...) & the gruyere and spinach strada he popped into the oven. 

Due to my excellent minding skills, here is the finished product:

It was every bit as delicious as it looks.

The perfect breakfast for a cold, rainy Christmas.

Later in the day, after the first of the three movies, Adrienne & Brian got to work on the cioppino & on an Italian burnt ricotta pie they have marveled at in a cookbook for some time.

Garlic!

Crab legs!

They were hoping to get a couple whole crab on their trip to the fish market. Turns out that every place they went to had been sold out for a week, crab being something that a lot of people eat here on Christmas. One bag of crab legs was all they could find in all the places they went to, & it was actually the last bag in that store. A Christmas miracle!

Here is the cioppino, on its way to incredible deliciousness:

And here is a bowl of the final product:

Crab legs, mussels, shrimp, & cod, in a tomatoey broth!

While the cioppino was simmering, Brian got to work on the pie. He used to be a professional pastry chef, so he knows a thing or two about making a pie crust:

Once they got it rolled out, they put it flat on a baking sheet, spread a layer of cherry jam on it, & poured on the ricotta filling.

The amounts in the recipe apparently were off -- as experienced bakers & smart cookies in general, they were able to correct for the parts that seemed odd, but it still ended up being a two-person job to get the top crust on the pie:

Zoey thought the whole thing was very unusual:

Finally the top was on there and crimped down, & ready for the glaze that will give it its special post-nuclear blast look:

The idea is that you put the thing in at 500 degrees for ten minutes, the whole house fills with smoke,  the glaze turns a dramatic black, & then you lower the temp for the rest of the baking time. It worked:

Looks just like the picture in the book! No, really. It does.

I admit that I was skeptical. But, as it turns out, it's delicious! The blackened glaze gives it a touch of pleasant bitterness -- it doesn't taste scorched at all. It's a very nice flavor with the ricotta & jam. And of course, Brian's pastry crust is just always flawless.

The week between Christmas & New Year's ended up filled with general end of year tasks. I was busy putting up ads, while Adrienne was busy recovering from the fall semester. Zoey, having absolutely no responsibilities, went up to Tahoe for the week for some tobogganing with her old college friends:

While Zoey was gone, we also got some more pictures up. (It's easier to decorate when she's not around because she is so damn opinionated). Adrienne recently had eight of her photographs mounted on 4"x4" blocks, to put up above her desk. Here she is, putting a grid of screws into the wall:

Look at that focus!

Here she is carefully scrutinizing them for crookedness:

"I will not tolerate crookedness in my house."

They look pretty great, both close up & also from the living room, & thanks to her excellent math skills, they are perfectly centered above the window. 

A job well done!

Meanwhile, this week our house fell under attack on two fronts in a single night.

First, some critter crawled up under the security gate & dug a big hole in the lettuce:

No idea what it was looking for or what it found. Luckily, I had buried my treasures on the other end of the planter.

Second, there was a fairy attack on the kitchen window. Looks like one of them didn't make it home:

That investment in anti-fairy security measures was well worth it. They make such a mess when they get inside.

And that's it for 2012 on Mars. We're going to spend today -- New Year's Eve -- doing some cleaning up around the house, & getting ready for a delicious dinner out with Amanda & Matt. Then later, we'll come back to Mars & ring in 2013 with champagne, games, & rowdy karaoke. Zoey will miss the  festivities, as she's in Times Square helping out with tonight's ball drop, but she told me to send along  her best wishes for a happy & safe New Year's!