Christmas Eve Lasagna Fest 2008: A Story in Photos

For my birthday last year, my buddy Peter got me a mold to make a swan ice sculpture. Lasagna Fest 2008 seemed like the perfect excuse to try it.

It worked!
And it looked pretty cool on the table.
All of the preparations made Sesame really tired.
We had three delicious lasagnas for the faux competition this year. (For the record, Dave prefers to call it an “exhibition,” but we couldn’t really get our guests behind that idea. There were requests for score cards and real-time commentators for Lasagna Fest 2009.)Here are the lasagna makers with their creations: Peter (ricotta, pepperoni); Nicole (artichoke hearts, bacon); me (mini meatballs, mozzarella).
Here’s the post-lasagna-feeding-frenzy carnage:

I thought all three were delicious and deliciously different from each other, so… we’re all winners! But Nicole and Peter gave me a trophy.
Then we got down to the business of cocktails and handing out presents.

Nate got a radioactive octopus.
And Peter got black-bar sunglasses that no one could resist wearing. See? All the photos look like they might end up on TMZ!
Even the snowman got in the act.Then we just started posing for photos. You know how it goes… “Oh! Oh! Take our picture!”

It’s awesome. Look how happy everyone is… yay, Christmas! Here’s Mamie and Matt…

And Erin and Nate…Dave and I have a standing policy that all smiling photos…… must be followed by a “mean one.”Carla was there, too…And Bonita…
After a trip through the ‘hood to see the Nutcracker and light display at our neighbors’ house, we had another round of cookies with hot chocolate, then everyone went home to wait for Santa.

Dave and I had a few quiet moments before we cleaned up the mess and fell asleep with visions of sugar plums dancing in our heads.The next morning, I got us some popcorn (my favorite food!) to eat while we opened presents. But I made the mistake of leaving Sesame unsupervised, and popcorn is her favorite food, too.The end.