Emergency Christmas Cake

[droool....Emergency Christmas Cake. Black Magic Chocolate Cake with whipped cream and mocha buttercream center and topped with mocha buttercream. Made the morning before the Christmas party after the first cake failed.]

I was in charge of dessert for one of my parents' Christmas parties. I finally decided the day before the party on maybe a festive yule log cake and an optional lighter dessert. Isaac and I made the sponge cake and put it in the oven. The twins and I talked about the Christmas party, who would be there, what we would do, and that we were making the cake to celebrate Jesus's birthday.

I carefully prepared a clean towel with powdered sugar to roll the cake when it came out of the oven, and started researching my second citrus-based dessert. The buzzer rang, and I flipped the cake out on the waiting towel and began to gingerly roll it up. Crunch, crack, crunch. Uh-oh. Sponge cakes aren't known for their light crunchiness. I took a good look at the cake and picked up a corner. Half the cake came up in a solid, lightweight sheet. Not gonna roll this cake. Instead, I passed out sample cake-blocks to the twins, who appreciated them more than I did.

Sam came down from his nap ten minutes later and came to the kitchen to see who was snacking on what. Patrick ran over to him, leaned over, and carefully explained the situation to him: "Sam, Mommy tried to make God's cake, but it got crunchy, so now, we can eat it."

The proud aftermath

...of the great Cherrio disaster of '09. I caught Sam, to the absolute delight of Patrick and Isaac, standing in the middle of the kitchen table and chucking giant handfulls of Cheerios in all directions. Aaaaa!

Patrick did an excellent job cleaning up.

Butter Boy

I really only went upstairs to sit in my big chair for five minutes, and plan my week. I ran downstairs again when I heard an unusual complaint, "Mommy, Sam's all buttery!" Yes, he was finger painting. On the dining room floor. With a full stick of nicely softened butter. Judging from his face, he ate quite a bit too.

I couldn't get mad at him at all for some reason, it was just too funny. I put him in the bathroom, put soap on his hands, and told him to wash. Washing his hands is his favorite daily activity, so I thought he'd go to it. I cleaned up the floor and came back to check on him, only to realize he decided to wash his face too. And hair. His hair was an oil slick. Because there is no bathtub (only a shower!) in the awesome 'New Minnesota House' so we packed up for an emergency trip to grandma's bathtub. Sam's certainly making an effort to get more calories.

Book Worm

By mid-summer, Sam had finally stopped squirming enough for longer books. Now he finds a book, finds me, grabs my finger, pulls me to the step, and sternly requests that a read it :)

The previous occupants

Liked a very clean house. They kindly left us enough giant dusters for everyone in the family. Yes, that's right, everyone, 3 multicolored kid dusters, 2 mom and dad lambswool dusters, a funny shapped duster for raven and a giagantic extendable feather duster for biscuit the cat. We'll see if it helps us keep the house clean.

Thanksgiving Joy

Next year I want to see more pies...someone didn't bring their two-pie entry fee.

Found in the closet. And yes, they appear to be all the same size. Who's hiding the quintuplets?

My little pilgrim. So much to be thankful for!

Tired Boy

The twins were asleep, and Sam wouldn't have any part of it. Then I found him on the coffee table. It appears he had a different idea for napping venues...