12 Dates of Christmas :: Taco truck (No.9)

We finally sought out the long awaited Southern California style taco and burrito food truck here in Boston. The age old complaint about not having access to delicious Californian Mexican food is always rampant at our house (rice and beans in a burrito?! you've got to be kidding me…I mean, Chris.)  Chris went into this experience at Baja Food Truck with very low expectations. Very non-typical of him, mind you, who is usually quite the optimist (unlike myself). 

So what was the verdict? "Passable" 

These food trucks move around the city on different days and yesterday, it was near Chris' old work building, across from Rowes Warf. It was a blustery day- quite cold! Once we had our food in hand, we bustled into Chris' old building and sat downstairs, by the waterfall- just like old days. (Oh, and we almost went to the wrong food truck. The other one, though a taco truck, was not southern californian in style, I suppose. Close one there!)

We ordered a california burrito, a carne asada burrito, and a fish taco. Though it was all passable, he couldn't quite get over the fact that the fish taco had no creamy sauce (mortal error here, according to C). And I couldn't get over the fact that my california burrito, which is supposed to have fries in it (fries, for pete's sake!), barely had a trace of moist, sautéed potato. 

In any case, it was fun to try, but the quest for good southern Californian Mexican food is still ongoing. Sometimes I feel that surely, we could do a better job than any others out there. And kill it.

Across from Rowes Warf on a windy, blustery day

First photo: the fish taco

12 Dates of Christmas :: Harvard Square (No.5-8?)

I'm not sure we'll technically get to 12 separates "dates" of Christmas, and there are actually several other things we have done that I haven't documented as an official date- like the wedding, lunch with Chris' grandma, and some other meet ups/dinners with friends. Ooh, and the hours in the evenings we spend watching movies on Netflix. Therefore, I'm going to count all the separate places we visited yesterday in Harvard Square as different "dates." 

We primarily headed to Harvard Square to go to Bon Chon for lunch. We first had Bon Chon back in NYC, where it was all the rage and probably, in my opinion, single-handedly started the whole "doubly fried chicken" trend. Though that may sound strange and unhealthy, it's actually rather good and crispy (can't comment much on whether it's healthier than the Colonel, but it surely does taste that way!). We haven't had it in what, 6 years? Chris still thought it was preeety on par with what he remembered, though. So, success. While we were in that area, it seems that more and more of our NYC favorites are coming to Boston. It seems that Shake Shack is setting up in Harvard Square as well- meaning we won't even have to go as far as…Chestnut Hill (not really even that far).

We stopped by the Curious George Store, which is a children's bookstore, to pick up a birthday gift for Chris youngest nephew, Liam. It was funny to eavesdrop on conversations between kids in the store and their parents, discussing whether or not they would be able to go home with some cool new toy or sticker book and whether that meant that they wouldn't be getting a Lego set for their birthday- heafty decisions at an early age. Doesn't seem like a good trade to me!

We also spent time in our favorite, the Harvard Coop Bookstore. Golly was it packed. I found some good ones that I'd consider reading. I always say, "so many books and so little time!" or I'll mention how "learned" we'd be if we read just one of the books amongst many we find interesting. A new New Years resolution perhaps?

Finally, we picked up a hot chocolate from L.A. Burdick, a chocolatier. I have often found the hot chocolate a little too thick for my taste, but the milk chocolate one is pretty good and less bitter than the dark chocolate one. We still watered it down a tad and added half and half after we got home, but it was tasty. And toasty.

L.A Burdick. One of our first date locales 14 years ago.

The first photo is also inside the chocolate shop- so dreamy!

Fun phone photo video

I was just fiddling around with an app called Flipagram that puts together photos from your phone into a slide-show format, displayed with music. It's not very edited, but this is a great video anyway. Mostly you will see lots of photos of Harry (surprise, surprise!) since he is the number one subject matter on my camera, it seems! I tried to add other events through the year in there too. If you catch it, there's one of me looking miserable after surgery. I wish the quality was so much better- it's much better on my phone and computer, but looses resolution when on the blog. It may take me some time to figure out how to correct this. Anyway, for the time being, enjoy!

12 Dates of Christmas :: MFA (No.4)

We went to the Museum of Fine Arts yesterday to catch the John Singer Sargent traveling exhibit. Which was packed. There was a line to get into a line to get into the gallery. Within the gallery there were people on top of people. It made me think that we're all becoming a little intolerant of lines because when do people really wait in lines anymore?

The exhibit was rather nice. My favorite was one where he paints a clear pond, with ripples and pebbles underneath the water. Unfortunately, my photo is a little bit blurry (probably because there were 5 people next to me at either elbow!) and I can't remember exactly what it is called, but it was pretty neat.

Arg, doesn't really do it justice, but trust me, it was magnificent

Chris' favorite of the set: Mountain Fire

We had a late lunch/early diner in the cafe afterwards and wandered through the "new" American Wing (only the first floor of it, though). I remember the old American wing and it was always a little damp and dark and cloistering. The new one is so much improved: a bit more modern and spacious. Being in New England, I thought some of the paintings and furniture were so apt. I mean, don't we all know this George Washington one from history books?! It was pretty neat to see it in person and to see how large it was in real life.

Pretty famous as well, I suppose

Personally, I enjoyed the American portrait paintings- the bright colored clothing paired against the darker backgrounds overlaid in a shiny paint texture. And it looks like I liked to take all the photos from an angle yesterday!

We were pretty much too tired to see anything else yesterday, but once again, just like earlier in the year, made a vow to come back more frequently!

Twelve Dates of Christmas :: ICA (No.3)

We had never been to the Institute for Contemporary Art in Boston before (after all these years living here!) and decided to take advantage of free admissions on Thursday evenings. It's a pretty magnificent building that sits along the Boston Harbor. Very angular, glassy, and modern. I'm sure it is beautiful in the daytime or during warmer weather as well, when you can sit outside on the decks and look out towards the water.

I can't say that I'm a huge contemporary art fan, though I find it interesting. I did like one artist's work on the female form my favorite of the evening. I do enjoy mostly, the choice in layout of the art and how it's decided what goes where and how they should appear. Like this photo, where there is a huge white wall with only two smaller paintings.

A bit grainy iphone photos, but Chris' and my reflections with the Boston Harbor in the background

To our surprise, the ICA is teeny. We walked through the exhibits in may be 30 minutes tops! We browsed the gift shop and found a cute pine cone ornament for our Xmas tree next year!

*First photo: Courtesy of Chris. The staircase in the ICA.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! We had a great one. You can read about Christmas Day here. We had a nice Christmas Eve dinner when E and A came over. It was busy busy in the kitchen all day. Chris made a nice prime rib and E & A made a delicious Krantz cake for dessert from their new cookbook, The Jerusalem Cookbook. 

We drank mulled cider, and played Bananagrams (I never win! Arg! Mostly because Chris uses ridiculous words. I mean, "Gi"?!  Really?) and cards (of course!). We also played "Who am I" for the first time together (you know, the game they play in the bar in "Inglorious Bastards") and had a jolly time. Chris said he hasn't laughed that hard in he can't remember when. I adore Christmas Eve. I just love it.

A little blurry, but Christmas Eve afternoon with the dogs

Setting up for Christmas Eve dinner. Could that cat be any cuter?

Family dinnertime!

Twelve Dates of Christmas :: Brunch at Hamersley's (No.2)

We had an event packed weekend. Mostly, it was events revolving around food and decadent eating. Every single meal we had today was out- which doesn't make for  a good feeling at the end of the day, but was much enjoyed at the time. 

Technically, our original X-mss Date #2 was brunch at Hamersley's with E & A (a family brunch!).  It was nice to catch up. Both E and I wanted one of the waffle dishes (savory? sweet?- couldn't quite decide) but alas, the waffle machine happened to be broken today- we were informed literally minutes after we set foot into the restaurant. Seriously, of all days! We subsequently both settled for the arctic char special, but still, I think our hearts were set on the lobster waffles. Nevertheless, brunch was so delicious that I forgot to capture any of the moments in photos. Good thing Chris snapped at least the menu. (In addition to brunch, we had a breakfast of dim sum and a dinner of straight up carb-loaded pasta- gnocchi for me and pasta fra diavolo for Chris. Just classic.)

We walked around a bit today between breakfast and brunch looking for some necessary cookware for  preparing Christmas dinner. We now finally have a true roasting pan!

We saw this cute little "lawn" decor in the South End whilst strolling around:

And we ran into a group of Christmas caroling bicyclists!! I wish I had time to have captured them on video.

Twelve Dates of Christmas :: The Nutcracker (No. 1)

We kicked off our Twelve Dates of Christmas with our yearly trip to The Nutcracker! This is our 4th year in a row going to the show, and it's still just as exciting every year. Chris and I are in agreement that this year's performance was, no doubt, the best show (though C did note a couple of mis-steps. Chris! I likely did not notice these little mistakes since I joked that the two tallest people in the entire row in front of us, if not in the entire theater, just happened to sit in front of the two of us…). I can't quite put my finger on why we thought this year's show was stand-out, but I think that the costumes and dance numbers were just spectacular this year- pared down to the most beautiful bits.

We have been pretty lucky each year in terms of weather. At least in my memory, it's been nice enough that we've been able to just walk to the Opera House, and yesterday was no different.  It was uncannily "warm" yesterday for late December, and all the snow that had accumulated last week was slowly  but actively melting. We walked through Boston Commons on our way there and got a couple of good shots of the Christmas lights.

the Commons and the city scape behind it on a beautiful winter night

beautifully strung blue lights near the skating rink- which was packed. Just packed with people having fun. The most packed we've ever seen in. "crazy, nuts, packed" per Chris.

The Opera House is just so elaborate inside- a real underrated treasure in Boston, I feel. We've got to plan to get there at least an hour prior to the show one of these years so that we can get a good picture of the two of us in there. It's usually mob-like when we get there and there are just too many people in front of, behind, and everywhere, to get a really good picture.

but I did get this one, though. Beautifully, ornate ceiling at the Boston Opera House. 

After the show, we stopped by our favorite fast food haunt, Uburger. We always find an excuse when we're anywhere near the Commons to stop by that place. Well, even when we're no where near the Commons too, I suppose. 

at Uburger, enjoying the view of the Commons. You can see our reflections in the
window! Guess what Chris ordered…a frappe. A frappe! In this weather! No wonder
someone got cold on the walk home...

close up of the X-mas tree, on our way home.

Happy Birthday and Xmas decor

Happy birthday to Chris! This year, since his birthday fell on a Monday (boo), we celebrated the weekend before. We went to The Cottage, in Chestnut Hill. It was a fun day to go to the 'burbs, as it was the first real snow fall of the year. The streets were relatively empty and we almost had the entire restaurant to ourselves. We had eaten at The Cottage in Wellesley with friends several weeks prior and Chris adored the prime rib special. Now, it is rare for him to love a meal/dish at just any old place, but it happened and we decided to give it a whirl again for his birthday. I was glad that the second time around was still a success! (He always pretends he's not pleased with his photo being taken, but again, don't let that stifled smile fool you.)

On the actual birthday day, we celebrated with good ol' college Chris' favorite meal of wings from our old college haunt (or rather, delivery-haunt), Wing It.  

We both have next week until the New Year off and though we are spending Christmas in Boston, we are looking forward to pursuing some quiet holiday time off, exploring what the city has to offer. I've been very inspired by "Twelve Dates of Christmas" from a blog I read and have planned out some good activities in the next coming weeks. I would love to hear live Christmas music but haven't yet found a performance that fits into our schedule. It'll be a busy but fun couple of weeks- we have two weddings to attend before the New Year!

A few weeks ago, we found our Christmas tree. The past two years, we've brought home a tall one- I'm talking, it needs to be strapped to the roof of our car- tall. This year, we decided to go small. It even fit into the back seat- no trunk needed! I've documented how much our pets (especially Gregory) love the Christmas tree ornaments here, and this year is no different. So far, no broken ornaments despite his attempts. The nutcracker soldier still lives.