Now, one of our favorite blogs, Cake Wrecks, documents how this great idea can go sadly, horribly wrong. Here’s but an example of the horrors you’ll find when you click the link.

He doesn’t really know about Christmas, or why Mommy and Daddy put up a tree. And then took down the tree. Or why he received a bunch of presents. Or what presents are.

 
But he’s got a lot of potential as for as Christmas spirit goes. At the very least, he’s got the good cheer part down.

Patrick plays his first piano with some help from Uncle Scott.

We’re excited our picture quality should be improving considerably in the new year. Jordan’s dad bought us a new camera: a Nikon D5000, and while we’re still learning the ropes, even its autofocus function is a big improvement over our old Canon point-and shoot.  Witness the great shot above, which is probably the best pic from our batch of holiday photos.

We were pretty excited to spend time with our extended family, in Bastrop and in Houston, and as expected, we had a blast:

 We wore awesome new Christmas / Winter clothes.

 
We met some new friends.

We ate like kings (and queens).

Jordan baked dessert.

 
We opened presents. The grandparents got just what they wanted: PoP (Pictures of Patrick).

And we bridged generations, with great-grandsons and great-grandmothers.

Pretty great, huh? But it’s always a stressful time, too, during the holidays. And sometimes money is tight. And sometimes it’s hard driving around to see everyone and deciding where to spend that first Christmas morning with the baby.

And sometimes the wind blows so hard that it threatens to wreck your temporary outside dining room, where you were planning to feed 25 people who came into town for what might be her last Christmas.

But as we’ve seen recently, nature can do much worse.

Here’s to you and yours. From ours. Blessing your first Christmases. And your last.

First there was the bread pudding, which Jordan made using a slightly modified version of this recipe (note: I have no idea what chahhah or brioche is).

Apple Bourbon Bread Pudding
1 tbsp butter
2 large baking apples (I used Fuji)
4 cups cubed white bread (sandwich bread or chahhah/brioche)
2 cups milk (low fat is ok)
3 tbsp bourbon
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp grated nutmeg
1/4 cup raisins or pecans

Jordan cut down a bit on the bourbon and she chose pecans over the raisins. We both agreed that more bourbon and raisins would have been the better choice. Still, the bread pudding came out very well. As you can see.

Jordan had never made or consumed bread pudding before, and she was worried it wouldn’t taste like real bread pudding. But I’ve had authentic bread pudding a billion times. This was a worthy effort, with the same moist, delicious consistency discerning Texans would expect.

On Saturday Jordan decided we would have some banana muffins for dinner. She used her own custom recipe, and the coup de grace would have to be the sweet oatmeal crumblies on top. Oh man, were they good. Stay tuned for the macro close-up of the crumblies.

You can’t see in this second group of photos, but I enjoyed both desserts with healthy portions of No-Sugar-Added Blue Bell Country Vanilla. Yeah, it’s low fat, but it has become the best ice cream in my country.

Cheeseburger Cupcakes from Marshall Preddy on Vimeo.

We also took a few pictures, which you can also view on our Flickr account.

The last photo is the bacon. Actually, it’s made of something like fruit rollups. They’re called Kellogg’s Yogos Rollers ( I guess because they’re “yogurty”).

Cakewrecks celebrates terrible cakes, and this one certainly qualifies. But normally I’d let it pass without comment. This morning, though, I could not look away from the horror.

• Why are her fingers so long?
• Is she French? Or does she just really like Pepsi?
• What did they use to simulate a belly button?

So yeah, I was transfixed. And I suppose I’ll be like this for a while. Before, when I saw pregnant ladies, I just noted the fact of pregnancy and moved on. Now, every pregnancy-themed bit of culture I see resonates stupidly inside me. “Will my wife look like that? Will someone lose their damn mind and buy us a cake formed to look like a pregnant torso?”

The mind reels.