Christmas Thunder

I awoke on both Christmas Eve and Christmas morn to the sound of thunder. (how far off I sat and wondered). It's pouring rain with flood watches and we've had the AC on for two days. At least in Florida it would be properly sunny and hot, this "I'm not really winter but I'm not lovely weather either" business is the worst.
Regardless of the weather that made no sense, we had to get ready for the arrival of Santa! And Santa needs FUEL!

Gingerbread was our choice of Santa fuel this year, and everyone except Charlie wanted to participate. Charlie doesn't like to do anything that smells like work.

I should've given baths after cookie making, as they got messy. Oh well. Julia insisted on making Santa a heart shaped cookie so he would know she loves him.

Miles however is always is always ready to help when it's baking or cooking time. He knows what to do and is ready to participate, but he needed a little help from Louis getting the cookie out of the cutter.

I had put out the "Christmas" themed cutters but Miles and Julia both had their own ideas, and Miles chose a flower -to go with Julia's heart cookie, I guess. But he said flower and was excited about it so, hey, why not?

Louis had to make sure we made some Ninjabread men (thank you Kristine, they're still a hoot) and so with that we got our assembly line of cutting going.

While the cookies cooled I cleaned up a bit and did some other things and while time passed, it seems like a little mouse came in and demolished two cookies and left this one reminder that he was there...

That HAD been a perfect heart cookie for Santa...thank goodness we cut more than one of them. I'm not sure who the mouse was, but strangely, shortly after this tragedy was noticed Charlie appeared desperately needing water. Hmmmm...

Once cooled it was a family effort to get them iced. Julia declared that she had to ice hers pink and put a J on it with decorative candies so Santa would know it was from her.

How could he not know?

We ended our night with much needed parental eggnog, and the nonbooze version for Louis and Charlie. We had some Shrek Christmas on the TV.

I am not sure what Charlie likes more, the eggnog or the homemade whipped cream. Every year we make it homemade and every year I wonder why anyone would ever buy it. Homemade is really just the best, most brilliant thing.

Julia drug out the advent calendars and set to work hunting the number 24. The candy in them is just terrible, I'm kind of surprised. I guess the only ones I ever had in my youth were from Germany and had German chocolate in them. Maybe I will order them from overseas next time?

We set out our special heart shaped cookie and milk and headed to bed. Thunder boomed throughout the night on and off but I don't think Santa much cared.

When I awoke, magic had taken place over night.

And now I wait for the munchkins to awake...
Tweet

Christmas Thunder

I awoke on both Christmas Eve and Christmas morn to the sound of thunder. (how far off I sat and wondered). It's pouring rain with flood watches and we've had the AC on for two days. At least in Florida it would be properly sunny and hot, this "I'm not really winter but I'm not lovely weather either" business is the worst.
Regardless of the weather that made no sense, we had to get ready for the arrival of Santa! And Santa needs FUEL!

Gingerbread was our choice of Santa fuel this year, and everyone except Charlie wanted to participate. Charlie doesn't like to do anything that smells like work.

I should've given baths after cookie making, as they got messy. Oh well. Julia insisted on making Santa a heart shaped cookie so he would know she loves him.

Miles however is always is always ready to help when it's baking or cooking time. He knows what to do and is ready to participate, but he needed a little help from Louis getting the cookie out of the cutter.

I had put out the "Christmas" themed cutters but Miles and Julia both had their own ideas, and Miles chose a flower -to go with Julia's heart cookie, I guess. But he said flower and was excited about it so, hey, why not?

Louis had to make sure we made some Ninjabread men (thank you Kristine, they're still a hoot) and so with that we got our assembly line of cutting going.

While the cookies cooled I cleaned up a bit and did some other things and while time passed, it seems like a little mouse came in and demolished two cookies and left this one reminder that he was there...

That HAD been a perfect heart cookie for Santa...thank goodness we cut more than one of them. I'm not sure who the mouse was, but strangely, shortly after this tragedy was noticed Charlie appeared desperately needing water. Hmmmm...

Once cooled it was a family effort to get them iced. Julia declared that she had to ice hers pink and put a J on it with decorative candies so Santa would know it was from her.

How could he not know?

We ended our night with much needed parental eggnog, and the nonbooze version for Louis and Charlie. We had some Shrek Christmas on the TV.

I am not sure what Charlie likes more, the eggnog or the homemade whipped cream. Every year we make it homemade and every year I wonder why anyone would ever buy it. Homemade is really just the best, most brilliant thing.

Julia drug out the advent calendars and set to work hunting the number 24. The candy in them is just terrible, I'm kind of surprised. I guess the only ones I ever had in my youth were from Germany and had German chocolate in them. Maybe I will order them from overseas next time?

We set out our special heart shaped cookie and milk and headed to bed. Thunder boomed throughout the night on and off but I don't think Santa much cared.

When I awoke, magic had taken place over night.

And now I wait for the munchkins to awake...
Tweet

Sacrificial Pancakes Vs. Cookies

When I was a kid Grandpa Drake made the best pancakes on the planet Earth. It was the ultimate treat to wake up on a weekend morning at their house, especially in the winter, and have those hot steamy pancakes before going to church with Grandma. They were the best pancakes ever, and after he died I spent a good amount of time trying to recreate them.

Christa and I spent a lot of Saturdays or Sundays at Grandmas, making Aunt Jemima pancake mix, or Log Cabin pancake mix, always thinking our pancakes were quite tasty but never quite making the grade of "Grandpas" pancakes.

I always wondered if it was just the magic of it being GRANDPA that made them that caused them to be so good, but then one day I saw this.

OH.

Yeah.

There it is.

And forever after I had the magic within me as well to make pancakes.

I'm pretty good at it. I disagree with Alton Brown (sorry dude) and don't reduce the amount of butter in my pan because butter crispy goodness around the edges is part of what makes my pancakes AMAZING.  I've made a lot of pancakes over my 47 years, these days I usually make them for my family on a weekend or holiday, because some how actually making a proper breakfast has become a special event in this world but that's a whole other subject. (Not nother subject. Nother is not word.)

What I was thinking about this morning was this. When I bake cookies, cookies are this science of chemistry that you simply follow the instructions and they turn out properly. Baking is SCIENCE. Baking always works out if you do it all exactly as it says to do. (Aside - providing the recipe provides all the info you need, and you actually DID it all as it said no don't whine to me, you probably didn't did you? Admit it. You skipped stuff. You didn't combine wet and dry apart form one another did you?) Anyway, cooking usually looks like this at my house. It's a fun magical time of us combining things and delicious wonder occurs.

Then there's the matter at hand from this morning, PANCAKES.

What's the deal with pancakes that no matter how hard I try, how diligent I am at following the instructions there is always ONE sacrificial pancake?

I try to wait out to make sure it's been long enough to flip. I make sure the pan is properly hot before I drop batter in. I do everything I would do for every SUBSEQUENT PANCAKE  yet each and every time, in my entire pancake making existence, ONE PANCAKE GOES TO THE PANCAKE GODS.

Also, don't google PANCAKE GODS. Weird stuff shows up.

So every time I make pancakes, I try to save that first pancake. I do everything I can imagine but every time, every single farking time, the pancakes gods take their sacrifice. I must know that the first pancake will go awry somewhere in my heart, because I normally make them two at a time but that first one goes in solo. I've surrendered before I start I guess.

I guess I'm just glad there are no cookie gods, I would lose my mind if I lost a dozen cookies every single time I bake.

There you see the sacrificial pancake on the alter, surrounded by butter. We barely knew thee.
Tweet

Sacrificial Pancakes Vs. Cookies

When I was a kid Grandpa Drake made the best pancakes on the planet Earth. It was the ultimate treat to wake up on a weekend morning at their house, especially in the winter, and have those hot steamy pancakes before going to church with Grandma. They were the best pancakes ever, and after he died I spent a good amount of time trying to recreate them.

Christa and I spent a lot of Saturdays or Sundays at Grandmas, making Aunt Jemima pancake mix, or Log Cabin pancake mix, always thinking our pancakes were quite tasty but never quite making the grade of "Grandpas" pancakes.

I always wondered if it was just the magic of it being GRANDPA that made them that caused them to be so good, but then one day I saw this.

OH.

Yeah.

There it is.

And forever after I had the magic within me as well to make pancakes.

I'm pretty good at it. I disagree with Alton Brown (sorry dude) and don't reduce the amount of butter in my pan because butter crispy goodness around the edges is part of what makes my pancakes AMAZING.  I've made a lot of pancakes over my 47 years, these days I usually make them for my family on a weekend or holiday, because some how actually making a proper breakfast has become a special event in this world but that's a whole other subject. (Not nother subject. Nother is not word.)

What I was thinking about this morning was this. When I bake cookies, cookies are this science of chemistry that you simply follow the instructions and they turn out properly. Baking is SCIENCE. Baking always works out if you do it all exactly as it says to do. (Aside - providing the recipe provides all the info you need, and you actually DID it all as it said no don't whine to me, you probably didn't did you? Admit it. You skipped stuff. You didn't combine wet and dry apart form one another did you?) Anyway, cooking usually looks like this at my house. It's a fun magical time of us combining things and delicious wonder occurs.

Then there's the matter at hand from this morning, PANCAKES.

What's the deal with pancakes that no matter how hard I try, how diligent I am at following the instructions there is always ONE sacrificial pancake?

I try to wait out to make sure it's been long enough to flip. I make sure the pan is properly hot before I drop batter in. I do everything I would do for every SUBSEQUENT PANCAKE  yet each and every time, in my entire pancake making existence, ONE PANCAKE GOES TO THE PANCAKE GODS.

Also, don't google PANCAKE GODS. Weird stuff shows up.

So every time I make pancakes, I try to save that first pancake. I do everything I can imagine but every time, every single farking time, the pancakes gods take their sacrifice. I must know that the first pancake will go awry somewhere in my heart, because I normally make them two at a time but that first one goes in solo. I've surrendered before I start I guess.

I guess I'm just glad there are no cookie gods, I would lose my mind if I lost a dozen cookies every single time I bake.

There you see the sacrificial pancake on the alter, surrounded by butter. We barely knew thee.
Tweet