Growing up, food was always a huge part of the holidays. My mother is the most amazing cook and baker on the planet. Everything she makes is delicious. While I may not have inherited her cooking talent, I am very fond of baking and it just isn't the holidays without baking! I was a little worried that we were coming into the Christmas season and I wasn't going to have an oven to make yummy treats for us and our friends and neighbors. However, a girl in our branch moved back to America yesterday and she gave us her oven! Merry Christmas to us!
I know you're thinking to yourself that this looks like the Easy-Bake-Oven you got when you were 10, at least that's what Cory and Rachelle said when they saw it today. I have to agree. And if I had any of those nifty little packs that the Easy-Bake-Ovens came with, I would totally feel like I was 10 again. But these are pumpkin muffins. And when I say pumpkin muffins I mean from scratch, pumpkin muffins. There's no open the can of pumpkin puree. You have to buy the pumpkin and then bake it, and then smash it and then make your muffins. It is pretty fun making everything from scratch. My mom always made everything from scratch and I always thought I would too but I really haven't done much of that in my adult years. It's just too easy to buy a can of this and a box of that and throw it all together to make dinner. Being here, if you want to eat it, you have to find a way to make it from scratch, go without, or be super rich so you can buy all your food from the imported stores. 1 small box of pancake mix is $10! But I make my own dry pancake mix and just add the eggs and milk when we want pancakes. I also make my own spaghetti sauce (not a big deal to most people but I never took the time before) and we're going to be making a lot more of that since we're so excited to eat pizza!! Good thing I switched doctors! If Dr. Jia thought I was big before, she should see me in 6 more weeks after I've been baking my little heart out! Anyway, here's our little pumpkin starting in on her second muffin. This girl loves her a muffin!
My two sweeties eating muffins for breakfast.
In other news, Ali has discovered that pen writes on skin. It was a fun morning of writing on Mommy, herself and then all over the duvet cover.
Doesn't she look like a little person who just got caught? So guilty, yet so cute!
When I saw what she had done to the duvet cover I got down on the ground at her level and pointed to the bed and said, "No, no, Ali. Only draw on paper." Then I just kept looking at her to see what she would do. We had a staring contest for a few seconds and then this little grin crept onto her face and she giggled. I don't know if she really understood that she was in trouble and it was so cute so I couldn't help but giggle too. I love this girl!
