Christmas (yeah, I know a bit late)

2011.01.07

Here is a shot of the oysters. We ate most of them raw, but a couple of them had swiss cheese and pancetta baked onto them. They were amazing.

My aunt used to work for a cheese market so she knows an incredible amount about cheeses and wines. We always let her pick cheese for us (and believe me, we love our cheese in my family).

Here's the entire gang - Tom, my Aunt Barb, my brother Joel, my cousin Chris, my cousin Jess (this is her place), Jess's boyfriend James, and their child Victoria.

Here's another shot of Victoria. She's cute as hell and funny. She loved eating the oysters. I swear they'll have no trouble getting her to eat food when she gets older.

Here's Daddy with his daughter. You'll notice she's got a piece of bread in hand. It was the funniest thing in the world to watch her run around with that. Jess would put some brie on the bread and Victoria would spend hours licking the cheese off.

I took these photos on Christmas day which has always been a bit strange for me because my family generally celebrates Christmas on Christmas Eve. It started as a convenience thing - it was easier for all of us to exchange gifts the night before at my grandparents - and soon turned into a tradition. For the past couple of years I've played host (I'll try and post some of those photos later) so that left me with nothing to do on Christmas but a lot of dishes. In comes my cousin with a great idea - oysters, champaign (real champaign mind you; not sparkling white wine), and cheeses for breakfast.