Showing posts with label Holidays. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Holidays. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Friday, November 26, 2010
Thanksgiving
This classy little card was found at each place at my aunt and uncle's Thanksgiving table...perhaps it can start to give you a sense of our own little version of a crazy family gathering.
Please note that the smiley face is holding a glass of red wine.
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Thanksgiving Disasters, via NYTimes.com
Your Thanksgiving won't be as bad as the guy who fought someone in the process of robbing his car on the Upper West Side...I promise.
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/22/its-thanksgiving-were-doomed/
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/22/its-thanksgiving-were-doomed/
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Disney and the Movies
This holiday season there are not one but two animated Disney movies in the theaters. I don't really write many movie reviews here because I don't go see that many movies, but since I saw both The Princess and the Frog and A Christmas Carol in 3D, I figured I'd share my take on both of them.
I know there's a lot of controversy surrounding it, but I loved The Princess and the Frog. Not only is it the first Disney movie with a black princess, but it's the first hand-animated Disney princess movie in 11 years. Anika Noni Rose, the actress who plays Princess Tiana, is wonderful. Not only is she the first actress to do both the speaking and singing voices of a Disney princess, but she's a Tony Award-winner which means she started out on Broadway. (Woohoo!) Tiana is a very strong female character who knows that she can't get what she wants just by wishing on a star, but that a lot of hard work is involved in fulfilling your dreams. The movie also has a great score, inspired by the 1920s and New Orleans jazz. There was a lot of criticism that Tiana spends too much screen time as a frog, but that allowed there to be a good amount of time spent both in the city of New Orleans (as a human) and in the surrounding Bayou swamps (as a frog). The one thing that bothered me was Tiana's frog body. She had a slender curvy female silhouette, as a frog. I mean, come on! But once I got used to that, I enjoyed the movie a lot. And the villain is a voodoo master - how cool is that?! I want to go see it again in theaters, but since I refuse to pay $12.50 a second time I'll probably go see a morning show for $6.
A Christmas Carol also got mixed reviews. My expectations weren't that high, but I was blown away by the animation. We saw it in 3D and it was well worth it. The animation was astounding. The detail was incredible. The people looked, walked, talked, moved like real people. You could see the hairs on the tip of Scrooge's nose. The retelling of the story was average and a lot of the script seemed like it was written just so that it could be animated with special effects, but those effects were so outstanding that it didn't matter. I loved the aerial shots of Victorian London. The movie was also a darker interpretation than some others I've seen - it was scary at a few points, which made it a lot more exciting than I was expecting. If for nothing other than the animation, you must see this!
Jim Carrey does the voice of Scrooge and all the ghosts. I thought it was amazing that Scrooge and the Ghost of Christmas Present looked so different, but both looked so much like Jim Carrey. Can you tell from this picture?
I know there's a lot of controversy surrounding it, but I loved The Princess and the Frog. Not only is it the first Disney movie with a black princess, but it's the first hand-animated Disney princess movie in 11 years. Anika Noni Rose, the actress who plays Princess Tiana, is wonderful. Not only is she the first actress to do both the speaking and singing voices of a Disney princess, but she's a Tony Award-winner which means she started out on Broadway. (Woohoo!) Tiana is a very strong female character who knows that she can't get what she wants just by wishing on a star, but that a lot of hard work is involved in fulfilling your dreams. The movie also has a great score, inspired by the 1920s and New Orleans jazz. There was a lot of criticism that Tiana spends too much screen time as a frog, but that allowed there to be a good amount of time spent both in the city of New Orleans (as a human) and in the surrounding Bayou swamps (as a frog). The one thing that bothered me was Tiana's frog body. She had a slender curvy female silhouette, as a frog. I mean, come on! But once I got used to that, I enjoyed the movie a lot. And the villain is a voodoo master - how cool is that?! I want to go see it again in theaters, but since I refuse to pay $12.50 a second time I'll probably go see a morning show for $6.
A Christmas Carol also got mixed reviews. My expectations weren't that high, but I was blown away by the animation. We saw it in 3D and it was well worth it. The animation was astounding. The detail was incredible. The people looked, walked, talked, moved like real people. You could see the hairs on the tip of Scrooge's nose. The retelling of the story was average and a lot of the script seemed like it was written just so that it could be animated with special effects, but those effects were so outstanding that it didn't matter. I loved the aerial shots of Victorian London. The movie was also a darker interpretation than some others I've seen - it was scary at a few points, which made it a lot more exciting than I was expecting. If for nothing other than the animation, you must see this!
Jim Carrey does the voice of Scrooge and all the ghosts. I thought it was amazing that Scrooge and the Ghost of Christmas Present looked so different, but both looked so much like Jim Carrey. Can you tell from this picture?
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Espresso Cookies and More NYC Holiday Fun
Last night I baked these Espresso Crinkle cookies. It was a new recipe so I wasn't sure how the cookies would turn out, but I think the pictures speak for themselves. They were amazing. And dairy-free, too!
Today when we left the apartment, we came across this little red-eyed snowman chillin' on the street. (Okay, pun intended.) Here he is, pictured with my mom's snowboot for scale:
I went uptown in the afternoon to visit the Museum of Natural History with Lael. There are two big evergreen dinosaurs holding wreaths at the entrance. They're both covered in lights, although you can't tell in the sunlight.
This was the first year that I've seen the museum's origami tree, which has a different theme each year. This year's theme is Origami, A to Z and features animals arranged by letters of the alphabet. The stars at the top of the tree were part of a mobile that slowly rotated.
Lots of letters, lots of animals
G is for gorilla and giraffe!
View of West 76th Street from Lael's apartment
Today when we left the apartment, we came across this little red-eyed snowman chillin' on the street. (Okay, pun intended.) Here he is, pictured with my mom's snowboot for scale:
I went uptown in the afternoon to visit the Museum of Natural History with Lael. There are two big evergreen dinosaurs holding wreaths at the entrance. They're both covered in lights, although you can't tell in the sunlight.
This was the first year that I've seen the museum's origami tree, which has a different theme each year. This year's theme is Origami, A to Z and features animals arranged by letters of the alphabet. The stars at the top of the tree were part of a mobile that slowly rotated.
Lots of letters, lots of animals
G is for gorilla and giraffe!
View of West 76th Street from Lael's apartment
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Latkes for Hanukkah
Last night my housemates and I made latkes for dinner - scroll down for the recipe!
Mixture of grated potatoes, onions flour, beaten eggs, salt, pepper, and baking powder
Frying the latkes and grilling chicken
Yum.
Salad, chicken, latkes, applesauce, and sour cream!
Just figured I'd throw in a picture of our hearth with the rocking chair, since it was really Chrismukkah that we celebrated. Note my Metropolitan Museum of Art advent calendar!
Mixture of grated potatoes, onions flour, beaten eggs, salt, pepper, and baking powder
Frying the latkes and grilling chicken
Yum.
Salad, chicken, latkes, applesauce, and sour cream!
Just figured I'd throw in a picture of our hearth with the rocking chair, since it was really Chrismukkah that we celebrated. Note my Metropolitan Museum of Art advent calendar!
Here's the recipe we used for the latkes:
4 large russet potatoes (about 1 pound each)
1 large onion
3 eggs
1/2 cup matzo meal or 1/4 cup flour
2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp white pepper
1/2 tsp Baking Powder (mix in with the four)
Peel the potatoes and grate them either by hand or in a food processor. Squeeze the grated potatoes by handfuls to get rid of the excess starchy water or drain in a colinder. Place the potatoes in a bowl. Peel and grate the onion and beat the eggs lightly. Add the grated onion, beaten eggs, flour, baking powder, salt and pepper, and mix well. Heat about 1/4 cup oil in pan. Fry!
4 large russet potatoes (about 1 pound each)
1 large onion
3 eggs
1/2 cup matzo meal or 1/4 cup flour
2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp white pepper
1/2 tsp Baking Powder (mix in with the four)
Peel the potatoes and grate them either by hand or in a food processor. Squeeze the grated potatoes by handfuls to get rid of the excess starchy water or drain in a colinder. Place the potatoes in a bowl. Peel and grate the onion and beat the eggs lightly. Add the grated onion, beaten eggs, flour, baking powder, salt and pepper, and mix well. Heat about 1/4 cup oil in pan. Fry!
Friday, December 11, 2009
Saturday, December 5, 2009
The First Snow
Happy First Snow! I tried to capture on film just how pretty the snow was this afternoon, even though that's never quite possible. I photographed out our living room window, which already has pretty paper snowflakes. It was very festive, watching the real snowflakes fall in back of the paper ones!
Oh the weather outside is frightful,
But the fire is so delightful,
(yes, that's right, we have a cardboard fireplace in our living room..)
and since we've no place to go,
let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!
Oh the weather outside is frightful,
But the fire is so delightful,(yes, that's right, we have a cardboard fireplace in our living room..)
and since we've no place to go,let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!
Monday, April 13, 2009
Easter in Philadelphia
I went to Philadelphia with my parents for Easter weekend to visit family friends who live there. On Saturday, we went to the Philadelphia Museum of Art to see the Cézanne and Beyond exhibit. It featured many of Cézanne's major works, and works by other artists who were directly influenced by him, including Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, and Jasper Johns. Afterward we visited the American wing and the European wing to see the Impressionist works. Here are some of my favorite works that we saw:
A Woman and a Girl Driving, Mary Cassatt, 1881
The Large Bathers, Renoir, 1884-87
The Grands Boulevards, Renoir, 1875
Little Dancer, Aged Fourteen, Degas, 1878-81
There were also flowers and trees in bloom on the street where our friends live...although it was chilly and a bit windy on Easter Sunday, the sun was out and the flowers were beautiful!
A Woman and a Girl Driving, Mary Cassatt, 1881
The Large Bathers, Renoir, 1884-87
The Grands Boulevards, Renoir, 1875
Little Dancer, Aged Fourteen, Degas, 1878-81
There were also flowers and trees in bloom on the street where our friends live...although it was chilly and a bit windy on Easter Sunday, the sun was out and the flowers were beautiful!
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Happy Pesach!
I may be only half-Jewish, but I can still celebrate Passover! I'm going to the Vassar Jewish Union's seder tonight with a friend, and I'm excited because I haven't been to a seder in years. I really hope they have matzoh ball soup! If you need a refresher on the Passover symbols present on the seder table, watch this great video someone sent me:
Monday, January 26, 2009
Year of the Cow
Today is Lunar New Year in many Asian countries, and 2009 is the year of the ox or the cow. So in celebration, I decided to post some images of cows and oxen. The first is my own picture, a hanging calendar I got for free in a Chinese/Thai/Vietnamese restaurant in Italy, and the other images are from Flickr.
Gung Hay Fat Choy! Xin Nian Kuai Le!
Gung Hay Fat Choy! Xin Nian Kuai Le!
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