Holiday Catchup

I'm so behind on blogging that I'm just going to throw up a bunch of pictures and call it Christmas. Our family celebrated in Ohio this year, which gave me the chance to quit thinking about plumbing for a while and Ada the chance to run through the 40 acres.

Modeling the hat from my Christmas cracker. This was the only English tradition this year, as dinner was more Continental - homemade lasagnaa and Bûche de Noël. The kids declared the lasagna the second-best they'd ever eaten. I'd like to think that reflect positively on the cuisine available in San Francisco restaurants, and not negatively on my cooking, since it took about four hours to make.  

 A bunch of cute creatures all at once. All of the pets traveled, both from DC and California, but we couldn't corral the California cat into the picture. He was highly suspicious of the dog.

I made doughnuts for Christmas breakfast. This was a great idea. A less great idea was putting the hot oil outside to cool, where Ada later found it. After eating several cups of solid fat, we decided she had to spend Christmas day in the garage in case she was ill. There appear to have been no lasting effects. 

My father changed my oil. I am really good at having my life together, except when it comes to car maintenance. I should have changed it a year ago but forgot. Yikes.

New Year's Eve I spent with friends, but I once again forgot to take photos. We celebrated at 8pm so the kids could go to bed at a decent time, but they still had enormous fun throwing confetti for more than thirty minutes. It's one of my fondest NYE memories from my childhood that we'd tear up paper to make enormous mountains of confetti to throw. If you were thorough, your parents would still be finding pieces in July. It was good to pass on the tradition to the next generation.