nekosensei

The last few days have been enjoyable. On Christmas Eve, we had dinner at

forestdruid's mother's house. As always, the food was delicious. Christmas Day was at my parents' house. My dad dressed up as Santa Claus and gave presents to my nieces. This year, Emma did not cry in Santa Claus' lap. Initially, she was afraid of him, but once she saw that she was getting presents, she was as happy as a clam. My parents also think that she might have suspected that Santa was her grandfather, so we're going to start changing around who plays the role. It looks like I'll be playing Santa next year. Tee hee! Sounds like fun. :)

I also got a lot of nice presents this year. My parents got me Charmed Knits, which is a book of knitting patterns for Harry Potter fans. I also got two classic Doctor Who DVDs: "The Hand of Fear" and "The Invasion of Time." My sister got me a cute kitty cat t-shirt.

Oh...I also brought the stuff that I baked earlier this week. The fudge was such a hit that it disappeared before dessert. Yeah...we have a lot of chocoloholics in the family. I kind of felt bad for bringing it though because my dad ate a couple of pieces. He really shouldn't be doing that because his blood sugar has been high. I did bring him some angel food cake and strawberries sweetened with Splenda for him to eat so that he wasn't eating all kinds of sugared stuff.

Also, I inherited my great-grandmother's cookbook. (Said great-grandmother came to America from Germany. She lived in a tenement not far from UIC when my dad was a kid. Allegedly, her coffee cakes were legendary). Originally,

doomsey and I were going to scan it and give it back to my folks, but my dad can't eat sugared stuff anymore.

doomsey and I put it in a safe place, and hopefully, we're going to start scanning some of the recipes soon. I would love to see if I can resurrect some of her coffee cake recipes. I just have to keep in mind that a) cups back then were six ounces and not eight and b) eggs were smaller then. Either I'm going to have to find regular eggs or I'm just going to have to monkey with the recipe and use less egg.

We left my parents' house in the early afternoon and headed over to see

doomsey's folks. There, we had spice cake and watched Die Hard 3. My mother-in-law gave us our Christmas present yesterday. It was a new cushion for our papasan, which annoyed

doomsey because, according to him, there was nothing wrong with the one that we had. (

doomsey has been a curmudgeon this year because he keeps complaining about getting Christmas presents. He claims that he doesn't want more "stuff"). I don't think it's that big of a deal. I'm sure we can freecycle the old cushion.

Anyhow, we're celebrating Hannukah tomorrow with

doomsey's family, so there should be even more festivities. I think

almeda is also going to teach me how to crochet.