Listen here, Bakerella...

Recently a friend introduced me to this blog. Bakerella creates amazing sweet treats, takes fabulous pictures of them, and inspires readers everywhere to attempt new culinary feats. Including me. After taking a look at this recipe, I decided to try it for my mother-in-law's birthday cake. Oh Bakerella. You make it look so easy.


Uniform layers? Nope. Crumble-free layer of icing on top? Nope. Richest yellow cake I've ever tasted? Yep. Hey, if I was only going to achieve one of the three, at least I picked the most satisfying.

In other events, our living room became a toy vomitorium last night after we celebrated Christmas with my in-laws. Holy. Crap.

First, raise your hand if your Nana is a librarian!


And that's not a complete accounting of the books received by the girls yesterday. Bless her heart, Nana can't resist a good book when she sees one. And since she's a librarian, she sees a lot of books. Between holiday gifts and Hey-it's-great-to-see-you-again! gifts from Nana and Bumpa, the girls probably receive 20-25 books per year from them, all with a personal note inside the front cover. (I love the idea of a personal note, but it also immediately eliminates those books from our donation pile; I simply cannot give away a book that has a personal inscription. I just can't do it.) Between their librarian grandmother and English teacher mother, my children are doomed to a life buried beneath stacks of books they may never get to or appreciate.

The highlight for our family was the 11-in-1 Game Set Bella received which includes chess, checkers, pick-up-sticks, Chinese checkers, mancala, go fish, tic-tac-toe, and some other cool games I cannot recall right now. We've had so much fun playing pick-up-sticks, and Bella fancies herself something of a expert in the game of "Chest."

Perhaps best of all was the nice visit we had with my in-laws. As is the case in most homes, the kitchen ended up being the hub of activity, and that activity included eating, visiting, laughing, snacking, Web surfing, and more visiting. I love the ability of my husband's family to sit back, relax, and enjoy the moment without feeling the need to rush somewhere or "do" something. In fact, it reminds me of one of my favorite Story People. Maybe I'll give myself that print to celebrate...nothing at all.