Fête de Noël à la maison de Nina

[I don't know why I went French for that title, except I was trying to alliterate Noël  with Nina.] 

I attended my first holiday party at Nina's home in December 2013, even before I worked with her - officially. The fact that I attended "might" have been a clue to some of the Caramoor crew that the team dynamics were about to change. I had some "official business" to take care of first, so we had to keep it on the DL.

Parties à la maison de Nina are fun, homey, and her dogs and little boys continue to crack me up. Last year, I might have been wrangling one of the pantsless-wonders, which stood me in good stead with nephew Cannon decided to some of the same things when I visited over Thanksgiving. It ain't a holiday party until you spy at least one of the kids ... Well.

Anyway.

Friends from the department, "alumni" from the department, significant others, and many more attended. Munched. Talked. Laughed. And munched some more.

 And maybe some of us took some inspiration from lighting features,

 talked DYI, STEM, and MakerBots with Nina's Tom,

and came up with low-cost, recycled lighting options for summer activities.

 Glow stix and empty wine/water bottles

et voilà!

 Merci Nina

Joyeux Noël

Dinner by Nina
Desserts by Nettie 

~Photos by iPhone

'Tis the Season, to be Baking ... Fa La Laaaa

On the second night of baking, 

my oven hit 

375 degrees. 

Fa La La

La LA LAAAAAAA

There's a office holiday party on tomorrow, so I'm taking treats. Tonight was night 2 of the holiday baking.

Tuesday night, I made dough for these snickdoodles and a Nestle Tollhouse cookie base. I also made a batch of mint brownie bites (with this recipe, scooped into mini-muffin pans and stuffed with a half of an Ande's mint candy) and a new recipe, a pan of the McCormick Cinnamon Caramel Swirl Brownies. 

Tonight I made these snicker-doodles and the Tollhouse cookies, also scooped into the mini-muffin pans, half stuffed with a Hershey Kiss and half with a Reese's Peanut Butter cups.

This last batch of snicker-doodles got a little crisper than I like, because I got distracted watching Mary Berry and the last episode of the U.S. ABC version of the Great Holiday Baking Show. (The UK show is so much better, but I love Mary's style.)

I always go a little overboard, but there is enough for the hostess's kids, guests to take home left-overs, people who drive me to have left-overs, and for me to eat too many.

Total:

2 doz. PB bites;

2 doz. Kiss bites; 

4 doz. choc. mint browning bites; 

3 doz. snicker-doodles; 

and

1 tray caramel bars

Wait. How am I taking all this on the train?

Oh ...

Fudge. 

Still, this is NOwhere near my holiday baking output of days of yore.

~ photos by iPhone

Upstairs, Downstairs at Caramoor: Holiday Edition 2015

After a morning of Board meetings, and an afternoon at my desk trying to catch-up after being away for two weeks, the main event of the day night was a private dinner hosted by the Chairman of the Board and three trustees and about 40 guests, entertained by three folk musicians, with the dinner in the Music Room. It was the first time in my 20+ years with Caramoor that the Music Room had been cleared of heavy wooden risers and over 150 chairs, and set up to entertain for dinner. It had probably been more than 25 years since the Room had been used this way, so we were all excited to see how it would go as a dinner/concert location - and kick off the holiday season with festive decor. 

The Room is pretty Baroque/Renaissance as it is, so you don't need a lot of fancy decorations. A very tall Christmas tree festooned with paper ornaments decorated by the schoolchildren who visit as part of the arts-in-education programs, drawn in with their impressions of art in the House and Room. Nooks were filled in with collections of winterberry branches, and floral arrangements were scattered around on tables. Flickering LED votives on the table. All equaled simple understated elegance.

Upstairs for the fancy folks

Meanwhile, downstairs in the cold basement/garage,

the worker-bees had a very fancy table for 6.

  We decided to really think about how we could market this as a destination dinner or film shoot location. 

Maybe as a Prohibition-theme party site?

A Campaign Donors' back-to-basics lunch-box "dinner in a box?"

I kept going back to horror film- themed rental.

 Clear out the catering rental boxes and the Pepsi product stash and you have room.

The ambiance is there.

Low ceilings with pipes. Touch at your own risk.

 The freezer for the bodies is already there, as is the death match/prisoner cage.

Humor and many layers of coats kept us warm;

 But really -- this was the best part of the night.

 

It was a very long 13+ hour day, with lots of prep, long in-between times of waiting busy-ness, and then intense hours of being "on," directing people, being welcoming, and trying to keep my feet from slowing dying and trying to stay warm. But laughter - and watching certain colleagues try new things, liking them, and QUICKLY becoming jaded about expensive champagne types was humorous, as I downed my ginger ale.

Cin cin

Salud

~photos by iPhone

Happy Veteran's Day 2014!

poster from: http://www.va.gov/opa/vetsday/gallery.asp

What a Difference a Year Makes! Labor Day 2013

What a difference a year makes. Last Labor Day weekend-time-ish, I was fully immersed in the hazy lazy days of Summer NYC muck, but struggling hard to find the beauty. Occassionally I was able to find those little things - like a marigold pushed into a rust hole in a subway platform - or to look up at the mid-town skyline and discover a lantern-top I'd never seen before.

But ... even then, if you had been reading between the lines, you could tell that I was ready to start ...

screaming ...

running for the hills ...

looking ...

for an escape,

a new view,

a different path,

some perspective or clarity.

Something definitely was fishy!

Luckily, an escape to the shore was arranged where in some serious relaxing and some very pertinent conversations were held.

Tales were told. Carbs were inhaled.

  Sea plums were admired. Shorefront property was envied.

 Sand was felt between our toes. 

Sun, surf, sand, salt, secrets, and "somedays"

 and

 "So, What ifs..."

and here we are a year later.

Thanks Christine.

Thank you just isn't enough.

What a difference a year makes!

Reminder to all:

 Just look for the signs -- so you don't have to bang on the ESC key so much.

Veterans Day 2013

courtesy of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

(Earlier posters are better, but the thankful sentiment is still the same.)

Hurricanes, Happenings, and Halloween 2012

Obviously I have been a little behind, if I'm blogging about Halloween after Thanksgiving - but between one thing, a hurricane, and another ...

Anyway, thanks to all my friends and family for letting me use these photos of them and/or their "adorable" offspring.

Jed and Kelli decided to take advantage of the impending arrival of Phineas and Ferbina to go as: the bearded lady, "her" beer gut husband, and the galaxy's cutest young Jedi.

Up in Idaho, there are so many adorable Princesses and Pirates: an Amber-haired Merida, Cinder"Elle"a, and and adorably scary Cap'n not-so-tightpants, Nathan.

If I had known Nathan was going as a pirate, I would have tried to find him one of these for his Halloween booty. Apparently their folks didn't dress up, but I figure they are superheroes everyday, so they needed a night off.

Kari's Krew were: A Ninja, the Tooth Fairy -- and her booty -- a Gnarly Tooth

You go girls!

The Maine Montley Maulers were: A Cat, A Cow, A Hippie, and then a Cade Bane.

I'm a little scared of the Bane, so I'm going to focus on the Happy Cow who is on vacation from California.

As for me, I wore one of my Cyclops hats, a t-shirt said "This is my Librarian Costume" and handed out an assortment of candy, including Nerds.

Usually for Halloween I dress up as the Grumpy Lady who Avoids Opening the door, but I was marooned at home because of the Hurricane. Unfortunately not one told the general population of our town that the Mayor had put a curfew into effect ... until we saw this on the door of one of our neighbors.

I can't believe she didn't get egged.

I can't believe I ate so much candy. 

Maybe that's why I decided to skip the Turkey for Thanksgiving.

Veterans Day 2012