Merry Christmas!

My rambling post of last night received this comment, regarding the baking I did yesterday:

"...I'm horribly curious -- how did it turn out? I experimented with pumpkin myself the other day... if all else fails, slather it with cream cheese icing. That makes everything wonderful."

~Jenny P.

First of all, Jenny P., welcome to my blog! I decided to answer your comment with a post, rather than another comment, because I might as well tell all my readers what happened to my baking efforts.

I don't know yet if the pie is good; we plan to eat it for supper. But I can tell you what the "experiment" was like!

...Well, it was rather like cake. ...Only not.

First of all, I suppose the whole thing would have been improved if I had baked it longer. The only truly edible part of the thing was a 1" rim around the outside. The center of the cake was...well, just picture a mud-filled swimming pool that has a 1" rim around the outside.

I kept wishing I had baked it longer, but I kept a stiff upper lip, cut the thing, and scooped some of the stuff onto my plate. (My family all insisted I sample it first).

What I needed was a stiff upper tongue.

That's a little extreme. Actually, the cake was quite edible. Just not enjoyable. I think I put way too much lemon juice in the batter. Pumpkin and lemon....don't mix well. Ugh. I don't think even cream cheese frosting would have helped - though I have used that rescue technique before!

There's no lemon juice in the pumpkin pie, and it baked longer, so I'm holding out hope for tonight. My Daddy loves pumpkin pie, so I hope I don't disappoint him!

This afternoon I must bake pumpkin cream-cheese rolls, for our traditional Christmas morning breakfast. But don't worry; I have a recipe!

Since this is most likely my last post until after Christmas, here's what else is going on at our house:

~ This morning Mom, Dad, and I went to a nearby grocery store and passed out little packages to all the employees we could find. We shop there often, and many of the workers know us by sight. The envelopes contained a Christmas card, two different tracts (one of which is very comical, and makes even unbelievers laugh. Don't worry, though: the gospel is still presented earnestly.), and one audio CD with some good gospel sermons recorded on it. Passing those out was fun, and the different responses were interesting. Some asked "who are you?" and other cheerily replied "Merry Christmas!"

I had never been in a store on Christmas Eve before, that I can remember. Now, don't let your jaw hit the keyboard; I just don't relish fighting crowds. I was shocked at the traffic in both the parking lot and the store aisles.

~ I still have all my wrapping to do.

~ ....And I am being called by family members who want to play a game....so I'm off for now. May each and every one of you have a Christmas filled with the closeness of God's presence, and overflowing with love.

Merry Christmas!