a visit uptown and . . . an award!

 morgana and i drove uptown today to visit with my friend elsa and her family. elsa always has something delicious cooking on the stove.

 she also has beautiful paintings on her walls . . 

 sautéeing baby spinach leaves for the lentil soup she made.

 we were happily surprised to see that their tree was still up . . 

 and i had fun admiring all the ornaments.

this one was made by elsa's youngest daughter in a handwork class she took last year.

 a little dog in the tree . . 

 that matched the little dog on the floor . . 

 the delicious soup served in her white wedding gift bowls from italy.

 their winter garden out on the balcony . .

 harlem on a wet snowy day . . 

 you can see nonno's car that we drive just parallel to the taxi cab.

 the other surprise was the warm fire in the gas fireplace!

 buon appetito . .

as i was about to sit down with them to eat, chanda called with the most amazing news! she had been at the awards ceremony for her ballet competition and had won best choreography! and also a cash scholarship to use at the ballet school of her choice! we were so excited and happy! hooray chanda! what a wonderful way to end the competition.

singing with isabella . . 

who is still studying at third street music school where all three of my girls went. i miss attending the recitals and need to remind elsa to let me know when isabella plays.

playing three blind mice . . we also all played apples to apples together which was a lot of fun. 

francesca's cello which she probably doesn't play as much as she used to as she's currently studying physics at the city college of new york, (renowned in the field with three nobel laureates). she also choreographs the most amazing dances/performance pieces that reflect her fascination with the celestial that never cease to delight us.

on the way home through snow dappled streets . . 

on a wintry eve . . 

more tag making and day three of the competition

 the apple bread that we made yesterday tasted just like a holiday fruit cake. it was very good and we loaded it with butter . . !

 morgana decided she wanted to make gift tags before i return everything . . 

we watched chanda perform her gamzatti, la bayadere piece via live streaming from the competition. it was fun except she made me watch sherlock at the same time so i had to keep checking to make sure i didn't miss chanda. however, we did miss her neoclassical piece as the live streaming suddenly cut out. i'm hoping they restore it sometime tonight.

cozy madeline . . notice san's gnome on the left?

 today she was out the door at 6:30 in the morning in preparation for the competition. here she is in the gamzatti costume (the "classical" piece), waiting to go on and trying to keep warm.

 in her journey through blue costume, the "neoclassical" piece.

all done for today. tomorrow she does her modern piece again for the modern finals.

baking with morgana

morgana has been wanting to make a holiday apple cake that she helped her austrian mom make a year or two ago.

we grated six apples and added hazelnuts and almonds.

on the last minute she remembered that it also called for prunes and figs. luckily, we had both.

the recipe was written in some tyrolean measurements that she wasn't sure how to translate, and we couldn't find an equivalent online, so she just winged it.

we had to add a bit more flour . .

it looks good! (it's very heavy!!)

meanwhile . . in missoula

i guess the family chanda is staying with has a cat . . 

the university . . whenever she texts me it seems to be snowing . . i think it's always snowing in missoula!

today she had a ballet class and a rehearsal and finished by 2 pm. the grandpa of the family she's staying with has been driving her around. today she asked if there were any nature walks she could take and he brought her to a really lovely one that wasn't too long (though she did end up turning around).

it's just so beautiful!

can you see the deer in the center?

heading back to the house, i think.

crafting with marisa . . and the "modern" piece . .

making cinnamon ornaments .. 

and lots of gift tags! the rollers and ink need to be returned to my friend who lent them to us for the craft fair.

i made a bunch also . . i'm all set for next year's holiday season!

it was the nicest afternoon . .

meanwhile, in missoula chanda had her modern dance piece to perform. she recently just choreographed this especially for this competition:

passports and airplanes

greg woke me at 4 this morning, but i couldn't get myself out of bed until 4:30. however, we were all dressed and ready to leave at 5 am . . somehow! it was so dark outside! we saw chanda through security and then i was ready to stay until her plane took off, but greg wanted to leave in order to beat the traffic back into manhattan. it was about 6:30/45 when we left.

well, we didn't make it very far before we hit traffic, and when i looked at the conditions on my phone, according to google, it looked even worse ahead of us. so, i suggested we get off at ocean parkway and he could park by korrina's building and take the subway in. i would wait until rush hour passed with korrina, and then drive the car in. korrina and i were planning to meet anyway, to take our passport applications in. the photo above is the view from her living room window.

here is the view from the kitchen window. it's a little further west so you can see the freedom tower in the distance.

we walked around the corner to her favorite coffee shop: milk and honey.

i was so happy to sit with a cup of coffee in front of me!

there's always that anxiety of getting ready for a trip . . it's not easy to stay calm. 

 

so, it was nice to sit down to a delicious breakfast with a hot cup of coffee.

poached eggs with tomatoes, pistachios, cannellini beans and scallions.

we left brooklyn around 10:45 and had no problem getting into manhattan.

korrina is trying on her gift from our friends marisa, tsering and deychen. it looks good!

we thought we would have to go down to the main passport office on hudson street, but since we don't need our passports in a rush, we were able to take it to the local post office.

it was very relaxed. we waited behind one woman for about ten to fifteen minutes, and then it was our turn. since we had done our homework, we had all necessary copies. the only extra expense was that i had to retake my pictures. when i had them taken six months ago, i had read that i should be wearing my eyeglasses. today, however, the woman said they want the photos without corrective lenses.

back at home we met up with morgana, after which they both took off for dinner at brian's restaurant. morgana missed the family and friends event before christmas, as she had gone to pittsburgh for her isadora duncan workshop.

back to chanda: she was flying all day. she landed in seattle and had a three hour layover until her flight to missoula. i think she got in around 5 pm or so.