Christmas joy!

Well, my baking is finished for another year. It was, as always, a ton of fun. For the first time, I tried making peanut butter fudge. I found a couple of recipes online and tried one but it didn't work. So, much to my sorrow, I threw out fudge and tried a recipe of my own. I've always had good luck with the fudge recipe on the back of the marshmallow creme jar so I made that but inside of putting in chocolate, I threw in a bunch of peanut butter. And it worked!

Matt and I already had our Christmas together. I wanted an MP3 player, which I received and Matt, for fun, received a variety of food items. Rice vinegar, hoisin sauce, havarti cheese, and anything else unusual that I could find at our grocery store. Matt's grandfather always liked Limburger cheese and every time we go to the store, Matt smells the cheese, which, by the way, smells like old, dirty socks. Very old dirty socks. So for fun, I picked up a package of Limburger and hid it in the bottom of our refrigerator (behind the oranges, where I knew he wouldn't look because he doesn't like oranges). For the past couple of days, Matt has been commenting on the odd smell in our refrigerator and in our kitchen. "What is that smell?" he's been asking. And I knew the entire time: it was the hidden stinky cheese.
Two days ago we tried the cheese. Opening it slowly and taking brave whiffs of smelly cheese, I watched as Matt tried the first sample. He didn't show any reaction on his face and once he had finished swallowing, he stated, "Ok, that's gross." Then it was my turn. I took a piece of cheese and placed it on a cracker. Being careful not to inhale with the cheese near my nose, I quickly shoved the entire cracker in my mouth and chewed as quickly as I could without choking. FYI: Limburger tastes like it smells. We had been hopeful that maybe it would magically taste like something else. But it doesn't. I quickly chased it with a piece of chocolate, which took the taste right out of my mouth. But not from my memory.
So we tried Limburger. And now there is an extra addition to our garbage for this week.

For Christmas, my mother in law gave us a laser pointer for the cats. It projects a red dot on the floor and the cats go NUTS!!!! Gus runs in circles, chasing this dot that somehow always stays right in front of him (unless something gets in the way, like a chair) He will do figure-8's, a kitty obstacle course around the living room, or just straight circles (he prefers going clockwise). Mac will chase it for awhile but Gus would go all night if we let him. It's great because it's a toy that he can't knock under the couch AND it's hilarious to watch him. What a great toy!

We're headed back to Indiana tomorrow, assuming that the latest snow storm we're expecting doesn't hit us too bad. We already have over a foot of snow on the ground and they're calling for another 6 inches tonight. I'm already running out of places to stack snow when I shovel but this is great weather! I just love winter!

I hope that everyone has a fantastic Christmas and a wonderful New Year!!!!!!