Christmas!

I was terrible about picture-taking over Christmas this year. I did get a few photos of the days' events, but I'm hoping some family members got more than I managed and will kindly share them with me!

Here's Gus opening his stocking at Ama & Papa's house on Christmas Eve:



Max checks out some new Pokemon cards:

Jack excitedly took his new shoes over to Ama:

Gus got his own set of real knives (meant for kids, but really cut) and a cook book. A definite highlight.

Sofie and Gus played "Santa" for the adults and passed out all our gifts. They were incredibly serious the entire time and kept meeting together with hushed whispers, coming up with distribution plans. It was adorable.

Sofie & Papa cuddled up to look at Ama's new photo calendar featuring all the grandkids:

I attempted, fairly unsuccessfully, to get a photo of the boys in their Christmas jammies:

Cousins!

Christmas morning started early at our house, about 6am. In fact, I think we were pretty much done opening presents by 7 or 7:30!

Gus put his new knives to work, cutting biscuits for Monkey Bread:

Jack helped by collecting all the pieces into a bag filled with cinnamon and sugar:

They worked so hard and so well together:

Sadly, I used the wrong kind of pan and all of the glaze for the bread leaked down into my oven and started a fire! Thankfully my mom had given us a fire extinguisher for Christmas many years ago (and I'm certain I rolled my eyes over it. Um, thanks Mom!) and we were able to put the fire out with very little damage to the kitchen. After that I seriously did not take another photo all day. I think I was just kind of in shock and dismay and couldn't quite get myself together enough.

Even though there are no photos, we had an absolutely wonderful time at Mark's sister's home in Pouslbo, where we spent the day chatting over coffee, enjoying a delicious meal and opening many presents. Their home is always so warm and welcoming and I feel so grateful to be invited in to it year after year.

As a side note, I did contact Pillsbury to suggest they make it explicitly clear on their recipe not to use a tube pan with a removable bottom. I heard back very quickly and they wanted to make certain that my oven was fine, our family was fine and, though they didn't actually ask, that we had no plans to sue them. I assured them that I only wanted to inform them in order to prevent what happened to me from happening to someone else. They're sending me some coupons. Who knows, maybe I'll use them to make Monkey Bread.
Or maybe not.