Chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf!

Last night we all headed up to Grandma and Papa's for a special 'Christmas Baking FHE'. Everyone got to choose an item of Christmas Baking they wanted this year, and Janie picked up the ingredients to make it. We had quite a process going, with projects happening on every surface in the kitchen and dining room. Vicki got straight to work on her delicious whipped shortbread (the hit of the night in my opinion); Ali was working on peanut brittle; Lucy and I rolled cookie dough for gingersnaps and oatmeal raisin cookies; and Janie and Maurine floated around the kitchen making sure everyone had what they needed. Lucy was particularly excited for all the baking that was going on. She sang her made-up Christmas Cookies song at the top of her lungs to ensure she was heard over the mixer. Tyler, Jason, Max and Jacob wrestled downstairs in the basement for a while until there were things ready to be tasted. Once our cookie dough was rolled, Lucy, Max and I got to work on making Christmas Popcorn. They loved watching the popcorn pop in the air-popper. I don't think they've ever had airpopped popcorn before. We melted white chocolate over the top of it all, and finished it up with crushed candy cane. mmm-mmm. Everyone got to take home samples of each item, and most of us sat around into the evening sampling our goodies. It was a really great night. Exhausting, but really great. Lucy tells me that she knows why Santa is so fat: "Because he eats a lot of cookies! Maybe we should leave him a pear instead." Tyler objected and said, "But Santa really likes cookies!" good one Dad.