lille juleaften

we had our holiday visit to ferrara's this morning. we met at 9:30 as korrina had to be at work at noon. korrina and i tried something different this year and split a bread basket of two mini cornetti and two large slices of panettone (along with the mochas you see above). all was delicious!

afterwards, we all ran errands in different directions. greg and i went to faicco's and two other stores in the neighborhood. morgan and harley went to trader joe's and veniero's for cookies. chanda did some christmas gift shopping. 

i wrapped several gifts with pluto . . 

and cricket.

and morgana made dinner: gnocchi with acorn and butternut squash, ricotta and parmean.

it was so good!

it was also wonderful to have deychen join us.

happy lille juleaften! happy little christmas eve.

visiting ferrara's cafe

we walked to ferrara's this morning as harley had never been (and we stopped at a lovely new shop in soho that had only opened two weeks ago with handmade goods from local artists). (also, you can't see it in the photo, but it was lightly snowing for our walk.)

we visited especially since morgan and harley will be back in london for little christmas eve and will miss the annual lille julaften expedition (december 23).

sharing what they had for dinner at korrina's restaurant last night . . (the above pic was of a special potato salad).

walking milly . . 

we walked by the museum and got blasted by the cold wind from the river . . 

just some of the pretty neighborhood christmas decorations . . 

these were at our local pharmacy. they always decorate so beautifully for the different holidays.

making paper snowflakes for the tree . . 

catching up with the advent days . . 

lille juleaften

 we celebrated lille juleaften (little christmas eve) in the evening this year. i set out for soho at 5:30 pm . .

 walking through little italy . . 

 to ferrara's cafe . .

 morgana and i had trouble with our order. we both wanted an affogato with cherry gelato, but the server misunderstood and thought we wanted gelato in a cup with an affogato. so we each had individual ice creams and one affogato. there was a problem with the affogato this evening also: it was not espresso, but just regular coffee! ferrara's just did not live up to its reputation tonight.

greg had a slice of new york cheesecake.

 

 and chanda had a lobster tail.

 morgana and i also ordered cookies . . tre colori (we originally wanted pignoli cookies, but they didn't have any today . . another problem!).

 we missed having korrina with us. she has been working such long days.

 afterwards, we decorated the christmas tree . . 

 i'll take photos in the morning of the decorations.

pluto had fun batting at the plastic icicle sticks hanging on the bottom branches. by the time i took this photo, he was a bit tired and overwhelmed.

lille juleaften

 we had our lille juleaften celebration at ferrara's in little italy this morning. we met korrina there around 11:30 for pastry and coffee.

 they're probably admiring pictures of her cat.

 korrina and i both had coffee and a canoli. she was happy to have a day off as she just completed an eight day work run without a break. she has five days now and today she spent running errands and knitting gifts.

 chanda and i were both amused that they served my canoli upside down, with the powdered sugar gracing the bottom of the pastry.

 morgana had a hot chocolate and italian cheesecake, chanda had a lobster tail and a mocha coffee, and greg had panettone french toast, which sounds achingly sweet.

 it was incredibly wet and messy out. we all stopped at macnally jackson to look at books, and then said good-bye to korrina as she was going to union square. greg and i walked with these two to sixth avenue, where they continued uptown to a dance rehearsal, and we stopped at faicco's italian pork store for christmas goodies (olives, prosciutto, provolone . . )

we came home and did laundry and moved a bookshelf in order to fit a christmas tree, which we better get tomorrow! i prepped for monday's dinner and tuesday's chili which i'll take to connecticut. last night chanda and i finished reading a tale of two cities, which we both really enjoyed (it's one of my favorite books). we'll try to watch the 1935 and 1958 movies after the new year.

little italy with korrina

 we usually visit ferrara's italian cafe in little italy on lille juleaften (little christmas eve in norway; a holiday i've known about ever since my sister first began seeing my norwegian brother-in-law in 1967). however, this year we visited a day early as greg wasn't available for the actual day (his work has been unusually busy due to department moves within the company). 

 we made plans to meet in front of ferrara's at 11 am. 

as you can see, it's another grey, rainy day. we're getting very london-like around here.

 meeting up with korrina and brian.

 hmm . . there was a problem, however, with ferrara's. they had a sign on the door that they were temporarily closed. i thought maybe it was a private event, and korrina and brian thought that maybe their refrigerators had gone out, but then a worker said there was a "police issue." then we thought that maybe there was a murder! but there wasn't any crime tape or anything . . so we have no idea what was going on but we are incredibly curious . . or at least i still am but i can't find anything about it online.

 anyway, there we were . . out in the pouring rain and unable to access a warm and inviting coffee shop. where to go? we actually didn't know any good coffee shops within a few blocks . . but we were just one block from chinatown so greg suggested the one place that he has been wanting to go to for several months now (so he says). it was wo hop: a restaurant we used to go to years ago when we never had any money.

this was not what chanda was wanting or expecting and it felt exactly like the situation in jean shepherd's a christmas story, when the family loses their turkey christmas meal to the neighbor's dogs and they end up at the local chinese restaurant with the staff serenading them with "jingle bells."

 well, we weren't serenaded with jingle bells, but we did have vegetable lo mein and tea instead of cannoli and cappuccino.

 snowflake and peking duck . . 

 back to work . . 

 and back to home (passing all the open markets with their vegetables and seafood) . . 

 well, korrina went to work too.