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Here's a shot taken on Boxing Day, the day after Christmas (named in England for the tradition of royalty, or Lords, boxing up leftover food from the celebrations of Christmas and passing it along to the less wealthy peasants or serfs of their domains). The rainy weather made for a pretty gloomy day, which we cheered up by taking lots of scenic walks in the fog.
When our neighbors took a sick tree down next door, they donated a few amazing old logs to my family for fueling winter fires. We wanted to catch this one in all its glory before it hit the fireplace.
How I miss having a fireplace! Here's a close-up shot of my parents' fireplace grate in front of a roaring fire on my first day back for Christmas! My dad used much eagerly torn wrapping paper and cardboard to fuel this raging blaze!
Here's a fruity basket that is essentially a coil on stainless steel feet. My brother got this as a Christmas gift, but it has become a home for community fruit - at least for the next few days until he leaves and takes it with him!
My cousin from New Zealand joined us for Christmas this year, and, as luck would have it, is an excellent cook! He made these two variations of Beigli (a Hungarian family tradition): Dios (walnut) and Makos (poppyseed). I remember having these at our grandparents' house as a child. Yum!
The second and third floors of the ICA comprise this 2-story auditorium that, surprise, looks out on the water. The only flaw I could see was the complete lack of entertainment.
Here's a picture of the entrance to the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA). This shot is of visitors looking at a painting featured in the main lobby, but since it is taken from the outside, you can see the various reflections from the parking lot as well. I liked how the light flooding in was so intense that the room's perimeter is clearly distinct even from the outside of the building.
The entrance to Boston's new ICA home. This is a building I often see from afar, but it was fun to finally get up close, standing at the entrance of a museum so long awaited!
An inside view through the upper-tier of windows on the ICA's fourth floor. You can see not only the ocean, but also some dramatic skies. And because this floor juts out from the rest of the building, you have a strange sensation of floating above the ground when standing close against the glass. Diller and Scofidio are the architects who designed this wonderful building.
A view of Anthony's Pier 4 during a visit to the new Institute of Contemporary Art location here near the city's Courthouse silver line stop. The whole building is focused toward this view, and with all its harbor-facing windows, the ICA is like a squared eye atop a pedastal watching the traffic of the water and sky.
A view of Park Street in Boston - the blessing in disguise behind the last-minute hoilday shopping bustle. This particular shot marked my "I'm done!" moment for this year's Christmas list.
This dish was sort of an accident. I went to my parents' place to hold down the fort one night and cook dinner for our family and couldn't find any potatoes for my shepherd's pie (because they were now logically located in the bread bin). So I improvised and used a cauliflower head instead. Hey, anything's good with cheese.
Here's an up-close shot of the copper rivet on the pocket corner of a pair of jeans. Apparently, somewhere around the 1850s these were introduced to reinforce points of strain on jeans, so they wouldn't continually need to be patched. I never knew!
The other night I went to a pottery open house for local artist Marty Morgan. This casserole was one of my favorite pieces there; I particularly liked the square imprints on both sides and the roasted brown color of the thing. All of her pottery has this incredible weight to it and the handles fit perfectly against the palms of your hands. The embodiment of comfortable utility.
Gingermen - all stacked up. I am trying out a few different gingerbread recipes this week - one is vegan, one has light and fluffy dough, and one even has a secret ingredient! The jury's still out on the best tasting of the three. But they are ALL highly photogenic!
This is the perfect cupcake made by the perfect hostess. My friends Megan and Jeff had me over on Sunday morning, and let me tell you, this is the perfect reward for a long night of dancing. Yup, that's what I was doing. This followed a delicious spinach and sausage risotto - maybe she'll share the recipe with us someday... ;)