It was a strange Christmas this year.  We decided to be safe and stay in Larchmont, so it was a quiet holiday with just our four here at home.  It ended up being pretty relaxing and low-stress, though it was so disappointing not to be with family as usual!

I went overboard on the cookies and made a batch of the chocolate ginger cookies I love so much, as well as the NY Times salted chocolate chunk shortbread cookies by Alison Roman, and Melissa Clark’s fudgy bourbon balls.  Andrew made homemade egg nog and had it curing (or whatever egg nog does?) in the fridge for a week!  We put together this spread for the Mahoney Christmas Eve zoom call.

Here’s a screenshot from the big event!  You can see our four, Uncle Hank, Aunt Jean and Moira, Annie and Jimmy, Aunt Denise and Uncle Jim, Aunt Jane, Uncle Peter, Tim and Liz and Maeve (Josie and Nate were around somewhere!), Kate (Jesse was putting Gus down for his nap), Sean, Mom and Molly, Fran, Daniel, and Janer.  I know Clare was on the call at the beginning but we seemed to lose her at some point!  So glad that everyone could make it!

In lieu of the usual bowling we did a round of Christmas trivia, in which the Wayne Mahoneys emerged victorious!  It was very close though, with everyone demonstrating remarkable trivia knowledge.  We also made donations to favorite charities instead of the usual gift exchange.  I was so glad we had the chance to see everyone despite the great distances between us.

That evening Santa came!

And here is the scene the next morning!

The kids had both asked Santa for nerf guns, and Santa delivered, with an extra one for the grown-ups.  This has been the favorite present overall!  But another favorite was this bouncy house we got for the basement.

We paused in the present opening to enjoy this delicious cinnamon crumb coffee cake from Seth Greenberg.

Around lunch time we zoomed with Mom-Mom, Aunt Molly, Tim’s family, Uncle Fran, Uncle Peter, and Aunt Jane for some more present opening!  The kids opened the presents they got from the Mahoneys and the grown-ups opened our Elfster gift exchange presents.

Later that day Sarah got into her legos and she was distraught when a critical piece fell down the heating vent!  Andrew managed to pry it open and we retrieved the lego (along with lots of other small toys and bits of snacks that had been collecting down there the last 5 years) using our vacuum cleaner.  I thought the picture inside the vent looked cool so here it is!

The rest of the day we played with presents and cooked, spoke with Gram and Grand-dad, Aunt Suzanne and fam, and had a nerf and lightsaber battle outside with the neighbors.

For Christmas dinner, Andrew made filet mignon, mushroom risotto, and a red wine reduction sauce.  I made the roasted cauliflower.

For dessert I made this lemon almond butter cake, and we also had more cookies and a chocolate Santa that was waiting to be smashed.

The next day Andrew made his second batch of egg nog for our post-Christmas Mahoney game night with Tim, Liz, and Fran.  We played a new trivia game called Half Truth which worked well over Zoom!  Andrew won by one point over Tim.  Sadly I forgot to take a screenshot, blame it on the egg nog.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Blaine had an assignment at school to make and present a series of Google slides on his families’ traditions and culture.  He’s really enjoying all the work they are doing on the computer, and I’m impressed how he can insert pictures and move them around.  I helped with the typing and some of the formatting!

His teacher sent us a picture of his presentation in class and said he did a great job!  Mom-Mom asked if we could post it to the blog so here it is.

We went and got our tree on Nov 28 and then it sat in a bucket in the garage for a week until we put it up!  Still going strong though, as of this writing on Jan 3.

The kids were very excited about their Lego advent calendars from Gram and Grand-dad!  They opened them first thing each morning in December.

We went to the eye doctor and Blaine got a prescription for glasses to help him see the board in class!  He only needs to wear them while he is in school.  We went to a local optician to pick out some frames and Blaine picked out 8 potentials and then ranked them.  Josie at Kurt Sauer Opticians was amazing, it was such a pleasant experience.

On 12/6 we decorated our tree!

We were disappointed there was no tree lighting event this year due to covid.  We usually walk into town, write letters to Santa, and have a cup of hot cocoa at Cocoa.  So we decided to make some drinking chocolate at home to make up for it!  We used up the last of our Christopher Elbow drinking chocolate so we’ll need to order some more.  So yummy!

On 12/12 we returned to Kurt Sauer because Blaine’s lenses had arrived, and Josie offered to show Blaine how all the machines work.  He loved it!

Here he is in his new frames!  Such a cutie!

A good friend was moving to London this month, and I was very sad to say goodbye!  Here we are on the paddle court, this was our third winter playing paddle together!

On 12/17 it snowed!  And the kids had an actual snow day!

We also used the occasion to construct this gingerbread house that Gram had sent us!  We made the frosting and then assembled and decorated it, using some pretzel sticks for support.

Both kids helped, though Sarah is only pictured consuming the extra gingerbread.  Yum!  Thanks for sending this, Gram!

In the afternoon we went out to Flint for some sledding.  It was kind of crowded but everyone was wearing masks.

On 12/19 I went for a goodbye walk with my friend moving to London, in lieu of our usual evening drinks, given the cold and covid.  Goodbye, Simone, we will miss you!  🙁

That afternoon we attempted constructing a snow fort on the back patio!  We used some trashcans and various sand buckets as molds for the snow.

On 12/20 the snow had started to melt a bit which finally made it wet enough to pack into a snowman.  Or more correctly a snow panda, as usual.

By 12/23 the snow had mostly melted, and we went for a beautiful walk in Manor Park on the kids’ first day of the holiday break.