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!