lovely weekend

Mother-daughter walks; in my happy place (i.e. wherever I ski) - though no snaps of the teens; baking & reading by the fire!

Anyone remember these?

. I bet you do. 3rd generation of Wedge women

Darwin gets good love

When he meets up with the teens after a week.

 

I can see / read clearly now the rain/fuzziness has gone...

So many books to read!!

 

Wait, there's more!

In addition to the lead up to Christmas, Christmas Day itself, the lead up to & enjoyment of the New Year's Open House, there was also New Year's Eve and our gift exchange on January 1st.

While we weren't quite this mother & her children

We did have a yummy dinner by the tree (everyone had to at least put on a nice top!)

And we bought a ticket to the "Big Night In" concert in which Seb's 

former classmate's band played. But in reality, the teens were in bed by 11:30 and I baked and maked until 2!

However, I was still first up to use Lorraine's fabric gift bags
(by the unlit fire because chocolate melts!)

and we devoured our overnight French toast with orange peel, cardamom, berries, syrup and toasted coconut.
Then it was gifts and the Open House - before tidying up and a light dinner of any healthy leftovers

The next day, I was gifted a day on the couch to read my murder mystery

We played the ridiculous Big Cheese game

Sophie modelling her new wellies

The kids did all the dog walks that day

And then to wrap up the holidays,
 I made a simple and quick tomato & tapenade tart

It was to emulate a delicious snack that Seb had adored in France.

It's bacl to (virtual) school and work this week. We all survived 2020, so bring it on 2021!!

 

New Year's Open House 2021 - COVID style

This New Year's Day was going to be different no matter what. But we love our Open House tradition and kept re-imagining how it could happen. We settled on a  Zoom call where people could drop in and say hello; stay for awhile if they could; dance if they felt like it (but no one did); and for the younger set, Seb & Sophie were co-hosts with their own "rooms". 

But that's not all. oh, no! Feeding our friends delicious fare is at the heart of our event (and we get the leftovers). So we "baked and maked" in the last days of 2020 and then drove around Toronto to dropp off dishes.

And in addition to family classics, there was much to inspire us:

Below you will find the menu we proposed.  People selected their top 3 and we guaranteed at least two of them

• Truffles – without nuts 
• Truffles – without booze 
• Truffles – any kind! 
• "Frogs" - a NB specialty with cocoa and coconut
• Honey & lavender biscotti 
• Stout spice breads (not selected)
• Gingerbread muffins topped with crystallised ginger 
• Chocolate sour cream bundt cake 
• Candy cane cheesecake 
• Fancy candy canes (no fancy sprinkles could be sourced to make them - next year!)
• Candied orange peel (not selected)

• Peppered mixed nuts with lemon and capers (vegan)
• Festive kale salad (vegan) 
• Im/famous three cheese and artichoke spread 
• Blue cheese and mushroom crackers 
• Onion & thyme jam (vegan) 
• Herbed carrot soup (vegan) 
• Maple roasted parsnip soup (not selected)

Sadly, Seb's magnificent punch was not on offer.

It was an opportunity to use up the last of the flour from the first lockdown.

Ah yes, that looks right for December 30th

It was quite the logistical challenge

First up, the delicious jam

The peppered nuts were popular

Everyone

And I mean everyone, got involved

Some of it was even pretty!

and tasty too

Hustling on the final morning

Then (just 45 mins late which included only 5 mins of Mum snapping about gift bags...) out the door we went. Seb had done a route plan, and together, we drove packages to 16 households. Meanwhile, Sophie & Darwin went on foot to another 5. ~35 people joined us on line and the praise for the Sophie's gingerbread muffins and Seb's frogs poured in, as well as much more. It was lovely to see people's happiness on their front steps and on the call. And like with any good party, it went hours over the official end!

The Open House gave me much joy to plan, something for us to do during these 'closed holidays" and we didn't even have to clean the house!!