Dan's First Polish Christmas

Throughout our relationship, Dan and I have always parted ways on Christmas, me to New Jersey and he to California. As marrieds, Dan and I decided that holidays should be spent together--making this the first year in our relationship that we have celebrated Christmas in the same state....this year, we picked New Jersey.

This made the holidays extra special, especially since we got to exchange stockings on Christmas Eve morning. In the past, we usually waited until New Year's when Dan returned from California, but this year we didn't have to wait. In fact, Dan even woke me up early that morning because he was so excited.


We made out pretty well. Santa got Dan personalized stationery, a monster-sized Slim Jim, peppermint bark, a record of his choice and an awesome Beatles poster.


Santa got me a tripod, Green Day rock band, blow pops in my favorite flavors, Japanese candy and doll, two headbands, a desert growing kit, and a Bon Appetit Cookie cookbook.

After stockings, we headed to New Jersey to celebrate with my family Polish style. I think Dan was nervous to break holy bread with my family and eat red borscht and five different kinds of fish, but somehow he managed okay. He had seconds and thirds.

Scenes from the evening:


Martin and Iza fry some flounder. (Nice apron, Martin!)


Annette fries the shrimp.


Dillon entertains us all. (I think my favorite part of the night was when Dillon went around the table gave every single person a great big hug and a "Merry Christmas." He's just the sweetest, sweetest kid.)


Audrey gave some hugs, too.



There was also some of this again.


Present opening!


Dan and me by the tree.


Maxim checking out the dessert spread.

On Christmas Day, Dan and I went to mass in the morning, and then spent the rest of the day eating cookies, reading and napping by the tree.


The day looked something like this.

In the evening, we dropped by Brian's house for dessert (because we needed more sweets).


The night looked something like this.


Here's to another merry Christmas!

Cookie Bonanza 2010

This is what I gave my family for Christmas.

Six different cookies:


Jam thumbprints (pre-jammed)


Pfeffernussen (German spice cookies)


Peanut butter (my fave-from the Baked cookbook)


Double chocolate crackle


Sugar cookies


Oatmeal with cherry...all packaged in a tin!

(I also added in some spiced pecans and chocolate bark as extras!)

All the Stockers are in LA...except us

They let us join in their west coast party for a bit.



I love these guys.

Case for the Butter Knife

For some reason, I thought it would be a good idea to use this...


...to to cut this open.



It wasn't.

Note to self. Don't do that.

Windows of Manhattan

I have lived in New York City for eight years, and yet I have never gone to see the famous holiday window displays at all the major department stores.

"Where have you been?" said Dan, as if he goes to see decorated store windows every day. He doesn't. I believe he did it once years ago when his parents were in town.

Don't get me wrong, I usually catch a glimpse of a window or two every year (I don't live in that deep a hole), but I have never tried to visit them all in one walking tour. And so on a very chilly evening this December, I decided to finally do it, just like the tourists, and bring my man Dan with me.

We started the tour at Macy's, walking to Lord & Taylor, Saks Fifth Avenue, Bergdorf Goodman, Barney's and finally ending at Bloomingdale's. We thought that every store did a pretty good job at coming up with a window that best reflected their brand and target audience. Macy's did a spin on Miracle on 34th St which had moving figurines, music and narration for the kiddies. Lord & Taylor did a slightly more upscale "Christmas Memories" highlighting Christmas then and now.


Me standing by the Macy's window.



Dan was not very pleased with the Saks windows that depicted rich bitches in glamorous clothes looking annoyed and bored with the children that played around them. Dan called it "sad."


Oh look, and there's the Christmas Tree! (This is my version)



This is Dan's version.


What about me and the tree?


Bergdorf had the best windows by far. They had a travel theme, and while each window matched the luxury sensibility of the department store, they were completely magical, sweeping you away in the spirit in awe and wonder. The detail was amazing.



Dan salutes to Bergdorf.

Barney's was a major disappointment after that. They had partnered with the Food Network so their windows showcased statues of all of their chefs. It all seemed a bit like corporate marketing to me, with logos branded everywhere, and did not invoke the feelings of Christmas. Bloomingdale's didn't really do anything to their windows and by that time, our hands and feet had turned into ice cubes so we were perfectly fine with that. We settled into Patsy's Pizza Restaurant nearby for a warm meal that felt amazing after that long, cold walk. The hardest part was going back outside. Baby, it's cold out there!

Holiday Mix

The Christmas spirit continues in the Team Squeen household.

We mailed out our Christmas cards this week. I have been mailing out Christmas cards since I was 12 years old, so I am pretty hardcore about the whole thing. However, now with Dan involved--we getting married and all--I don't think Christmas card send-outs have ever reached these levels of awesome.

We decided over two years ago that we would make a mix CD for our first joint holiday card. You read that right: OVER. TWO. YEARS. AGO. We had the discussion right about the time we got engaged in October 2008 and decided we will do it in 2009 when we got married. But we ended up not getting married until 2010, so the mix was postponed another year.  All this means is that Dan has been tinkering with this thing for ages. Yes, sometimes I would find ourselves in the middle of July listening to every single version of "Little Drummer Boy" available on iTunes for just the right version.

That said, I saw all the heart and soul and hard work that Dan put into this mix, and I wanted you all to know about it. He has a true talent. If there is a such thing as a job where you make mixes, he would be a star employee.


Here I am doing some card stuffing a few weeks ago. Based on my ideas, my talented work friend Liz helped me create the look of the album, and I was in charge of packaging it all together.

We're super excited about the positive response we received, which makes a second holiday mix...feasible. Don't get Dan started. Oh wait. He already did.

Some other fun Christmas things that happened over the weekend. My friend Meagan's mom was in town, and Meagan invited Julie and me over for dinner and to trim her tree.



Here's Meagan.


And Julie (Mom didn't want to be pictured). The tree was so lovely that it was quite a surprise when Meagan told me after wards that after we had left and they had gone to bed, the tree toppled over!

This weekend, Dan and I accomplished a long-time dream of mine and made gingerbread houses. Initially, I planned to make them from scratch, but that seemed like too much work, so I ended up buying us kits with ready-baked gingerbread and frosting.


On Saturday, we built the houses and then let them set overnight.


The following morning, still clad in pajamas, we decorated our houses while cold rain pounded the windows. Here's me with our little gingerbread village.


Dan's house is on the left and mine is on the right. I asked Dan why he has a dead gingerbread man on his lawn, and Dan said that he is not dead, he's making a snow angel. Just in case you were wondering, too.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

 
This weekend, Dan and I went to the German church in our neighborhood for a good old-fashioned Christkindl Markt!


This place was brimming with my favorite kind of people: GERMAN PEOPLE.


They served us some hot spiced wine and fruit cake, just like the kind I had in Germany!


They were selling all kinds of German desserts and goodies, so we got some ginger cookies, and Dan picked up a few pine cones for the road.


You see, Dan loves Christmastime, and since we have lived together, he is in charge of decorating the apartment for the holidays. Due to the expense and lack of storage space, we decided to forgo a tree this year (we always say maybe next year!). Instead, we walked around every tree place in our neighborhood looking for the cheapest nicest wreath.


Dan hung up the wreath inside our apartment so we get that Christmas-ey tree smell all month long. I wrapped a little red ribbon on it. And no, your eyes do not deceive you: that's my husband making a flower arrangement out of berries and tree branches.


He put up the lights, decorated the windowsill with the branches and pine cones and hung up the stockings. This, of course, happening while Christmas tunes blast from the record player and apple crisp candles burn a festive and homey scent.

I did my part by making some snickerdoodle cookies. As Dan says, there can't be Christmas without cookies!

Some other fun things that happened this weekend:
1. Dan played in a Seinfeld trivia contest and lost, despite weeks of watching Seinfeld re-runs. I am glad we no longer have to watch Seinfeld re-runs.
2. We went to Jason's apartment and ate some Japanese "miracle fruit," which makes everything--from sour cream to lemons--taste sweet. That's my kind of drug!
3. Danielle invited us over for a lovely waffle brunch, and we got to see her adorable Charlie Brown Christmas tree.
4. Nell and Adam gave us a New Orleans cookbook as part of a wedding present, and I finally cracked it open this weekend and made a huge pot of chicken and andouille gumbo. It took about three hours to make (apparently, this was an abridged recipe). It was good, but let me tell you: that stuff is not healthy. Neither is eating 20 Snickerdoodle cookies in 24 hours.