Random Shots of Christmas; Injinji Sock Contest Winners

Apologies for another late weekend post … and let’s get right into things.  In honor of the season, I’m converting the customary weekend fare into a Random Shots of Christmas:

(click to enlarge)

This one’s a family tradition: a table full of decorated sugar cookies that my wife spent a full day baking, and all of us spent most of the evening decorating.  Unfortunately, the “eating” part doesn’t last nearly as long as the preparing part, but we at least manage to save a few of these to pass around as gifts over the next week or so.

Longtime readers will recall there’s often some imaginative nonsense involved with my cookie decorating, but this year the creative torch was passed to our kids, who came up with some pretty clever things …

… such as these, clockwise from top left: a Rastafari snowman, an apparently quite overweight Calvin (of Calvin and Hobbes fame), Beaker and Dr Bunsen Honeydew (from my 11-year-old Muppet freak).  The last one is something called Steve the Minecraft Player, courtesy of my 14-year-old son.  No, I didn’t know that one offhand – and the fact that I have to Google my kid’s Christmas decorations is a sign that I’m getting either too old or hopelessly out of touch.  Probably both.

Thankfully, my kids managed to keep in mind the reason for all this holiday busy-ness:

As you see in these Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus cookies.  Sure, it’s a beautiful thing – but I’m already cringing at the inevitable debate in the near future about who gets to eat Baby Jesus. 

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We also have one order of business to wrap up: announcing winners of the Injinji sock giveaway contest.  Running Farmer, Jessica (Book of Life), and Maggie Wolff: e-mail me your contact info – you’re the winners!  Thanks very much to everyone else who entered; normally I’d say to stick around for the next one … but with the current state of things here, I’m afraid this is probably the end of the contest posts. 

So, um … yeah.  I guess goodbyes are awkward sometimes.  I’ll try not to make a fool of myself over the next couple of weeks – but there’s probably as much chance of that happening as those cookies making it past Christmas.

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