If you haven't seen Disney's Prep and Landing, then I highly recommend that you see it. It was very clever and really quite funny. I'm even going to say that it is one of the best Christmas movies I have ever seen.
My family kicked off this year's Christmas season with our annual gingerbread house competition. My brother Jon and I teamed up and created the Provo temple. Out of gumdrops I sculpted the Angel Moroni, Santa and one of his reindeer, a ninja (complete with a katana crafted by Jon) and his bride, Harry Potter, Draco Malfoy, Albus Dumbledore, Peeves, Moaning Myrtle, and the Grey Lady (These Harry Potter Characters were actually for the Hogwarts castle that never got completed...cough, cough...I mean Voldemort came and destroyed it. I also made Nearly Headless Nick and the Bloody Baron, but they were lost in the wreckage. Sadly I forget about the Fat Friar... I just plum forgot about him). In the end there was no actual judging, but if there had been ours would have won hands down.
The Angel Moroni was my favorite. I really wish I had gotten a better picture of him.
A lot has happened over this very long Christmas break. My days consisted of waking up at 11...30... maybe 12... and going to bed much later. I've worked out a whole three times, had several green drinks, got ready a total of six times, and read a few chapters of Queen Victoria. On the 19th we had a family dessert party. I was in charge of two desserts so I made a tres leches cake and a cream cheese pound cake. Nobody really touched my pound cake... It was a little heart breaking especially since it is one of my favorites. The tres leches was a hit though, at least with my immediate family. I went on a real baking spree Christmas Eve that was a little more successful. I made marshmallows, fleur de sel caramels, caramel wrapped marshmallows, and, because nobody ate my pound cake, cream cheese cake bites. The marshmallows where extremely easy, the caramel was a bit more tricky time consuming, and there really isn't a whole lot to cake bites. Marshmallows and fleur de sell caramels are the big thing on foodgawker right now. I've been itching to make them all semester. French macaroons are also really big. I was going to make them. I was even really excited to make them, but I ran out of time and I couldn't get the almond flour fine enough. I also didn't have wax paper and that was a must so there wasn't even an attempt made for french macaroons. They were more like a daydream in the form of a seeding dandelion in the midst of a soft breeze that slowly takes each seed away until they are all gone and nothing is left but a stem. Someday I will make them. I also tried making marzipan, but once again no almond flour. I made it any way and the whole mess hasn't even left the freezer... It scares me a little quite honestly. Someday I'll succeed at marzipan too. I must say that marzipan is one of my all time favorite candies. I absolutely love it to death times a billion trillion gazillion.
This is my niece Racharoo. She loves purses. Usually she will carry the cheetah and the black one around everywhere. Well I gave her two more and she carried all four of them around for days. It was adorable. Also if you ask her what Santa says she will go "Ho, Ho." And if you whistle around her she usually will try and whistle back. And when she gets excited about something, she will purse her little mouth up into a cheerio and go "Oooooooh. Ooooooh. Oooooooh" and jump up and down. She is kind of like a little puppy that is learning all kinds of new tricks. Most recently she has gotten into the habit of smiling really big and lifting her shoulders up so she has no neck and her face gets all squashed up. I call this her fat kid face. It doesn't help that she is a bottomless pit. She honestly never stops eating, but no worries she is still a tiny little thing and she runs it all off. AND I JUST LOVE HER TO BITS AND PIECES.
