Merry Christmas FAIL!

Its Christmas Eve and in the effort to start new Christmas traditions Richard and I are spending the day, baking, watching Christmas movies and eating. We decided the 24th will be our day to do nothing and not get caught up in the holiday crazies... which is mostly brought on by our very loving families.

So I started last night with buns... Richards favorite. They have to rise over night so I started the batch yesterday before heading to the movies (Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was awesome... 4 stars). I did half batch with the intention of bringing a dozen to Acton for the big family dinner, to happen tomorrow. When we got home I punched them down (the dough NOT the family... ha!) and this morning I made them into buns. After 4 hours I popped them in the oven.

**If you've never made bread before you have to let it rise and then 'punch' it down... the more time you do this the fluffier the buns (or bread) will be.

After 20 minutes I pulled Norma's buns (my Nana's mothers recipe) out of the oven and looking on with disappointment.

They didn't rise.



They didn't brown.

I tore one open and ew.



What a let down.

In the mean time we pulled out our Gingerbread house package, that claims to have everything you need.



We lined up all the pieces and as we started to construct we noticed no back wall. We trucked along anyways, but things quickly started to fall apart.



And sink.



We re-constructed and turned our house into a tent-ish thing. After the walls collapsed we had fun with the remaining icing. I am not proud of it, but it was fun to make and I bet it will TASTE awesome.









Today we had also planned to make Sugar Cookies, Chocolate Chip cookies and Oreo Cheesecake, but two fails and we pulled back our thoughts...

Refusing to admit defeat I started the bread all over again... should be ready to go for tomorrow morning. Which mean fresh bread for breakfast... if all goes well it will be a Christmas miracle.





In light of my failures I am loving today. I am in the Christmas spirit and that is a first. I am looking forward to tomorrow and our first Christmas as a family. So in light of my mood... a Christmas present to you (and a family tradition of mine).

This is me watching Muppets while baking (or re-baking)

 We watch a Muppet Family Christmas every year, watch out for the icy patch!

 After a short nap (4 hours long Mmm...) the  bread seems to be doing well.

This is the first PUNCH down. POW!

 Ok... I am off to do some more Christmasy stuff.

Love!