Christmas dessert

Chad is currently not carving the turkey-- the phone rang as he was about to start. No big.

So, the turkey took forever to thaw (read: it didn't completely thaw, even with 2 more days to thaw than all the experts said it should need), but it cooked really quickly. So quickly, in fact, that I didn't trust the pop-up thermometer and left it in even after the red button said it was "done". A still-frozen turkey just shouldn't cook that fast.

Anyway, I'm including this picture of Chad's dessert of choice, which I am going to call "genocide by chocolate" (name stolen from Terry Pratchett). I asked him what dessert he wanted, expecting an answer along the lines of "pumpkin pie" or "chocolate chip cookies". He waited until somewhere around 5 PM on Christmas Eve to come up with this concoction.

Bottom layer: Brownie.

Middle "frosting" layer: Chocolate pudding.

Top layer: Chocolate cake.

Frosting: Chocolate fudge.

If we survive the eating of it, I'll tell you how it was. Those small pies in the background, by the way, are my mince pies. A must-have for my Christmas.

This is Grandpa's tree. My first year as an Aim student, I went home for Thanksgiving to find that Grandpa, distressed because I didn't have a Christmas tree, had dug out the top of their old tree for me. He also made me a stand (a block of wood with a hole in it), and they bought some lights & gave me a couple of their old ornaments (the golden bells are among those original ornaments). The block of wood is long lost, but I still have all the other stuff. We bought the second tree a few years ago because we had acquired too many ornaments for Grandpa's tree, so Grandpa's tree now goes in our bedroom. Which is where it will go for the rest of my life. I'm sure someday the children will all want trees in their bedrooms, too, but that's one of those "cross that bridge when we come to it" kind of things. :)

And this is the living room Christmas tree (also known as "the new one"). The red-and-white striped things at the bottom are the "presents" Grandpa wrapped to go with the original tree. I still put them out, because they are cute. I laughed when I put them out last night, though, because they were quite obviously wrapped by a man. Grandpa was really, really upset about me not having a tree.

It seems that my husband is now off the phone and the turkey is carved, so it's time to run along before he passes out from impatience. Happy Christmas!