Christmas Pictures!

Ha! My brother is a weirdo, too!!



I have to do the pictures in reverse chronological order, so hast blogger decreed. I finally figured out how not to make them all randomly scattered over the page (ummm... centering). Heavens.

We had so many great visits on this trip:
with my friends and fellow baroque dancers in NYC in addition to my little sister, Daria and honorary mom, Sue
with the gang in Virginia Beach, and we totally hate the weather for making us one day late (but are so grateful it wasn't more than that!!!)
with Kathy and Thom in Center Township, PA, home of a top-notch and Lebowski-esque bowling alley
with my Mom and Dad and Chuckie and the rest of my side of the family, including a lovely and hopefully-not-too-rare-in-the-future visit with the Edgar side and my adorable cousins Ashlyn and Danica who are both scarily smart

And THANK YOU to everyone who donated to The Punks Delight. It is now entirely possible that I won't lose money on the show!!

Yay for Family!

We begin here in NE Ohio---

Mom, Dad and my huge, football-playing, 15-year-old cousin Ty at Aunt Jenny's house for our Renna Christmas extravaganza. Back in the day, there where about a hundred kids at these gatherings, pushing each other around in laundry baskets and sitting in a decorous circle to open presents one at a time (this took about 3 hours).

The new kids, Izzy and Evie, thanks to my cousin Shanna! They are seen here playing with my present to Izzy, a wooden veggie cutting set.

That kid can wield a knife!

All the cousins that were there! I was so happy to see so many of them.

Just in case there are some European readers out there, here are Chuckie and Shanna modelling the latest giant slushy designs.

In Center Township, PA-- we didn't take so many pictures (bad kids!!) because there were no babies around.

This is my patented bowling technique. Don't copy it.

Jeremy and Kathy are about to kick my butt in bowling. Kathy used to play in school, so it only took her a few frames to start kicking out the spares and strikes.

On to Virginia Beach...
Nicole, Ken's girlfriend, looks cute in her new hat, no? I had to really control myself and not steal it.

Uh-huh.

We didn't set Martha's kitchen on fire!! We were making feuerzangbowle, the German party treat. You make mulled wine, then set a cone of sugar on a metal thing with holes in it, pour some rum on the sugar, and set it on fire so the melted sugar drips into the wine.

Grandpa Phil and the amazing Baby Ben!

The dinner Jeremy and I concocted! Lamb, brussel sprouts with chestnuts (some very nice elves helped us with the peeling!), and roasted sweet potatoes and parsnips.

Ken is making Ben step on presents. Hilarious!

Martha, Phil, and Ben. Isn't his sweater unbelievably adorable? It was so sweet of Steph to pack it in all the trip frenzy. Luckily, the bamboo yarn from which I crafted this little number is designed to wick off baby drool!

Ok, this picture is just cute.
And doesn't Jeremy look like a giant??

Perfect.

Jeremy and Kris whilst we prepared the semi-annual Lynch Family Dinner, famous for its use of many of Martha's fun kitchen tools.

For the start of the New York series, Daria demonstrates that our feet are now the same size!

Jeremy at our Dirt Candy deep-fried extravaganza. We ate jalepeno hush puppies, deep-fried poached egg, and deep-fried ricotta balls! The potobello mousse was yummy, but the dessert was totally crazy and good: the ricotta balls placed in a pool of tomato jam with lemon-olive oil ice cream and a freeze-dried tomato slice. I didn't take such a good picture because I am embarassed to take pictures in a restaurant.

Daria wiggling her tooth in Kati Rolls, where one can have the best Indian street food in NYC.


Happy New Year everyone!