Can She Do It?

Because I am always long-winded and I have an eventful week to cover, here is my effort at being concise:

The picture I took for my mother-in-law's Christmas present.  I couldn't wait to see her open it.  I got the reaction I was expecting...tears.

A surprise from my 3rd period on the last day of the semester.  Man, will I miss those kids.

As if the cake wasn't enough, they all wrote a sweet note in this enormous card.  They got the reaction they were expecting...tears.

Rachel, Kim and Angelina came over to bake cookies for the church's Cookie Project.  We made 10 dozen cookies - oatmeal raisin, chocolate pecan, and orange-almond shortbread - and quality control demanded that we taste-test each type.  I'm hoping this will be an annual tradition.  Such fun!  I hope they agree.  Turns out I'm quite particular about my baking!

I set all the ingredients out on the counter before they arrived.  It looks like chaos, but it was nice to have everything in one place.  I had an apron for everyone to wear.  Kim is modeling the mint green Williams-Sonoma professional variety.

Rachel is sporting the "Have You Hugged a United Methodist Today?" apron.  And yes, this is me busying myself by taking pictures while letting someone else wash the dishes.  Thanks Rach.

Angelina lucked out with my new "Made With Love" apron from Mama Ese.  The red ribbons are too cute!

Here we are before the madness began on Christmas Eve night.  Mom said she was cutting back this year, but I sure couldn't tell.  Not surprisingly, she caved and gave me the flash early, so I wasn't expecting much at all, but she surprised me with some fun gifts!  Thanks Mom!

In preparation for our dinner party, I was lighting a candle.  The picture might not show it well, but I caught my fingernail on fire while trying to use a cigarette lighter.  Who designed those things anyway?  There is absolutely no way to light it without having your finger right next to the flame. 

Because we couldn't decide which game to play at our dinner party, we decided to have a boardgame sampler.  We played Balderdash, Apples to Apples and, of course, Catchphrase.  The most outrageous answer of the night came from Luke whose fabricated movie description is pictured above.  It reads, "The ants on polar hill have come to bread-house black."  No, don't bother rereading it.  It will not make any more sense the second or third time.  We sure wish Luke and Kristin would come back from Dallas so we could have some laughs like this more than twice a year.

Andrew and I took a drive through the mountains today.  He is such a good sport letting me set up the tripod, test out settings, and run like a mad-woman to beat the self-timer.

And that's as short and sweet as I know how to be.  Stay tuned for my new photography website.  I hope to debut it on January 1st.