Stuff People Make, Part 2

Ok, while I'm on the topic of making stuff, I couldn't resist sharing the awesomeness that is: The LiteBrite. Do you know this experience, coveted by all in the 80's? Do you remember the mind-numbing method of poking trillions of lights into black paper with a satisfying pop? You can imagine the Moment I had in that thrift store when I saw this puppy staring back at me for $3.50. Dustan's mom was with me, visiting at the time. I may or may not have pushed her down on the way to recapturing part of my childhood.


Even had the original box!

Moving on to a creative feat almost as impressive as the stove...I've had this picture in my recipe book for quite some time. We decided to attempt an ice cream cake bombe like this for Dustan's big 30th birthday this past December.

The trick to making one of these things is super simple. Pretend you're 7 years old and your mom just gave you the keys to the car and told you to go get groceries. We came home with a gallon of cookies n' cream ice cream, a half gallon of chocolate ice cream, brownie mix, a pack of Double Stuf Oreos, and two containers of Magic Shell. (Ahhh, Magic Shell. I could pour you over a twig and eat it).

Then you freeze the whole conglomeration. And then...

you party it up.




I also had a birthday in December! This was the absolute worst french toast I've ever had, even if Brahma did get up early to make it, cut it into heart shapes and dust it with powdered sugar. The best part was coming home after work and going downstairs and across the street to Asiana. Reeeeally good Korean food that cancelled out the french toast.

Trail made something this holiday season too. A new friend! Her name is Karma, she's a blue heeler and she is a spastic, frenzied wad of destruction on a leash. She kinda knows the system now, and when our door is open, she runs in and grabs a stuffed animal out of Trail's toy basket and then hops on Trail's bed and stares at her with an open-mouthed perma grin like What?

I guess that about sums up the making of stuff. And as completely messed up as this sounds, I feel like Christmas is finally here. What I mean is - I started working a job that was supposed to last a week at the beginning of December. But that week stretched into another week, and the next thing I know, I'm still working. It was, of course, a huge and timely blessing to have consistent work during this moving transition and the holiday season - but it definitely cramped my Christmas style. I like to have those interminable baking days. The kind that require multiple packages of almond bark and vanilla extract and peppermint sticks. I like to buy my gifts painfully slow. I look at them. I make Dustan look at them. And then I wrap them even slower than I bought them. I position them all nicely around our tree and they sit there for weeks, until I pack them up and drive them to Virginia. This year Christmas totally snuck up on me and there I was on Christmas Eve, painting and re-painting those two. freaking. dots.

We literally piled all our goodies into the car at 4am and drove straight thru the night. I took first shift, blinking back sleep in the middle of construction in Chicago, with salt-covered headlamps in the middle of an ice storm, and then -poof- we had landed in a pile of unwrapped presents on the east coast. Don't get me wrong, it was a total blast and sooo great to be with our families. But now that I'm back and settled in, and a foot of snow is in the forecast and our crock pot is bubbling with yummy goodness - I feel like saying Merry Christmas!

We're keeping our tree up til it's standing naked in a pile of needles.