Christmas Celebrations - Part 1: Our House

This year, we had to make four different trips to see family over Christmas.  So our Christmas celebrations started early in December and ended on New Year's Day. The last day before Christmas in which our entire family was together at home was December 15.  So, late on December 14, we set out the gifts and filled the stockings for the kids to enjoy early the next morning.  Before going to bed, I went up to the gym to do a few pull-ups because I always sleep better when my muscles are a little fatigued.  When I pulled on the bar, it fell off the door frame and landed on my nose and forehead.  So, unlike Rudolph, whose nose was shiny red, my forehead and nose had a shiner that was black and blue during our Christmas celebration.  I could not bear to have anything come near my nose for weeks afterwards because it hurt so much.

My husband had his own little catastrophe while I was dueling with the pull-up bar.  Every year he tries to copy his mother's famous cinnamon roll recipe when we do our Christmas to carry on her cinnamon rolls for breakfast on Christmas morning tradition.  While combining ingredients, he realized we were short one packet of yeast.  To solve that problem, he just cut the recipe in half.  Then he wondered if that yeast packet was too old.  Later, after he had attempted to make the rolls, he learned that the yeast temperature has to reach between 105 and 115 degrees (no more, no less) to enable the dough to rise.  He was so amused by the fact that the ingredients used to make cinnamon rolls are strikingly similar to those used to make biopharmaceuticals (minus hamster ovaries) to take much notice of the yeast temperature.  As much as he whispered "Now rise, my pretty" to the dough, I was certain the rolls would rise.  They did not.  They were tiny and dense, but we ate them anyway and still enjoyed the aroma and taste. 

As pictured at top left, he did not wait for his sister before taking a peek at the gifts waiting for them in the living room.