Holidays 2012

As you may know, this is the only time of the year I really like to bake, aside from the occasional chocolate chip cookie batch.
My holiday baking this year was an epic fail. I burned the white chocolate I was melting, the caramel cookies were too hard, my toffee bars weren't sweet enough and the sugar cookies had seen better days. The only thing that worked was the Harvest Pumpkin Apple Bread...which should really be called cake, because it has three cups of sugar in it.

Here's a few photos.

Here's more entertaining posts from 2011, Baking by the numbers and 2010, Baking by the numbers, as well as "We can't all be Martha Stewart" from 2009.

Our house from the outside.

Grammy and Aunt Lisa traveled down a couple of weekends before Christmas, to celebrate an early holiday and also Aunt Lisa's birthday!

As for Christmas, It wasn't a white Christmas, like in 2009. (When we got stuck in the snow.)

Our furnace went out on Christmas Eve. With the help of handyman Uncle Steve, we were able to get it back on, and the house kept us warm throughout the night.

Christmas morning.

 Who doesn't need emergency underpants? What a funny gift!

 Legos, of course

We spent Christmas day at mom and dad's, since we knew it might get a little chilly at our house...and what furnace repairman was going to come on Christmas Day?

Our family photo.

 

First World Problems

Our house is full of First World Problems.

First World Problems is an Internet meme based on a nation of privileged whiners. One of Urban Dictionary’s definitions includes the term “White Whine.” Here's a video that might help explain what first world problems really are.



Here are just a few of our First World Problems:

• “Mom! The Internet is slow and our videos won’t play right!”
• “I'm out of coffee...”
• “You didn’t buy any more Mozzarella Cheez-its at the store? All we have is the regular Cheez-its.”
• "I don't like any of these pants."
• "The refrigerator is too full."
• “I have to unload the dishwasher AND put away my clothes?"

It's a First World Problem:

There is a Blog, a Reddit page and Twitter hashtag dedicated to these problems.

Here is my latest First World Problem:

Even CNN got in on the fun:

Because you see, these are not real problems. Real problems are hunger, poverty and homelessness.

Those of us who do not have to deal with real problems, often forget how much we really have to be thankful for.

As for a national first world problem?
This Telegraph article sums it up: “Obesity killing three times as many as malnutrition.”