Christmas day

December 25 is largely a quiet affair for us. We spent most of it in our pajamas -- Rod baking bacon and cheese rolls and me making waffles. We're not Christmas people, but both of Jack's grandmothers and his Auntie Karen are, so on Christmas morning, so we also opened the gifts they sent. (Plus one from the cats and one more from Mamma and Dad.)

Grandma's gift was BIG and RED -- so, of course, it went first.

There is just something about a big, bright red box...

And inside the red box was...a white box!

And inside the white box was...

An ice cream maker!

That was, evidently, a very good choice for surprising a boy.

Yep, good call, Grandma!

Next came a sweet little green package from Auntie Karen.

Jack was pretty sure he knew what it was, because Auntie K knows her boy and can usually be counted on for a ...

BOOK! But this one is even better because it is named Jack!

Wow! Jack had to stop and read that immediately, especially because he is very fond of the Rev Awdry's Thomas the Train anyway and having one named for him was a major bonus.

The next package was from Dad's mother, Mormor.

Again, Jack had a pretty good idea what was inside, and he was very excited, because Mormor's gifts are always very cool and very Australian.

"Mamma, what's a Wiggly Party?" But, yes, it sure is colourful, cheerful, and very Australian! He immediately sat down to read that one through a couple of time, too!

Later that evening, after a visit to Mark, we had a try at the ice cream ball.

It was easy, fun, and magnificent! (Instead of cream, we used whole raw milk -- it was just s rich as half and half, I think. We added to that a Mexican double vanilla and we sweetened it with sucanat--an unrefined sugar. It was amazingly tasty.)

Jack proclaims it "very unusual, in a good way".