Christmas 2012

Best wishes for a very happy holiday season to all our friends and family on both the internet and the outernet.

With love from Keith and Aya.

Local Fauna Update: Christmas in the Grotto

You might remember the local fauna that appeared, one piece at a time, in the "rock garden" (grotto) outside our building.

The little creatures change position every few days and this encourages the casual observer to rationalize the the new positions by inventing story lines. "Squirrel Tries To Eat A Nut In Peace" has some tense moments, but it's hard to beat the drama of "Sauropod Adores Masked Rider Who Is Wracked With Guilt".

We were delighted to discover that Christmas is clearly a time for putting aside all the drama of the rest of the year and coming together to worship The Egg.

See how even the tinfoil stars swing low to adore his ovoid perfection!

All hail The Egg!

We still do not know who is doing this. It really isn't us. Srsly. We would tell you.

Community-Generated Christmas Decoration

The centre-piece for this year's Christmas dinner table:

Hard to see, but the whole platform is resting on a bed of pine branches and garlands of silver beads.

The houses are lit by a string of battery-powered LED Christmas lights. We poked holes in the foam-core base and pushed the bulbs through from below.

Some dry branches and a little spray-on snow really added to the effect.

We sent a copy of the plans to our dinner guests and asked them to make and bring their own house to add to the neighbourhood. Someone made two from red plaid paper, which added some lovely colour.

Feel like making your own? Download the printable version of the house plans here. It fits on a single piece of 8.5" x 11" (Letter) paper when printed at 100%. With a sharp craft blade, a metal-edged ruler and a couple of dabs with a glue stick, each house should only take about ten minutes.

Christmas Tree 2010

Our pagan totem for this Christmas. When we discovered this branch beside the road a few months ago it was love at first sight. We used it as a sketching model a few times, but it works best when decorated for Christmas.

Christmas Party, 2009

Another wonderful Christmas party with dear, close friends. Aya planned and created the whole menu, as usual, with some familiar treasures and new delicious adventures.

Kabocha (Japanese pumpkin) ravioli.

Aya's new favourite tool: the ravioli wrinkle-cutter.

Rolling the sweet potato strudel.

Poached bosc pears.

The strudel with the prime rib roast.

Inside the strudel with golden raisins and cranberries.

Table decorations.

Photos from Christmas dinner.

Aya arranging flowers for the table. The centrepiece is meringue mushrooms on snowy rocks on a silver tray, meant to look like an icy pond.

Candied orange peel, dipped in chocolate.

Roast quail with chestnut and cranberry stuffing. Zucchini and kale gratin (Tian) in the background.

The whole menu.