Fun with Christmas Presents

A Photo Cup

Laura gave Grandma a photo cup for Christmas.  In the months Lois stays with Mike and me, she drinks coffee every morning.  Laura ordered her a cup with photos on it.  The photos are of Lois's sons and nieces as well as her favorite activity, mushroom hunting.  What was different about this cup though is that it is just a plain black mug until you put a hot liquid in it.  Then the pictures show up.

Disneyland T-shirts

Emily and her cousin Eli began planning a trip to Disney-land when Eli was visiting this last summer.  They scheduled it for the end of the month of December when Eli and Laura were on school vacations.  Laura decided to make sure they had group t-shirts.  She gave them as Christmas presents.



Socks



Laura gave out dog socks.  What was unique about the socks was that they had pictures of the dog owners actual dog on them.  Thus Heath had pictures of Pongo and Finn on his socks and Mike had pictures of Frankie on his socks.






Sports

Emily gave her father two tickets to a January basketball game in Champaign Illinois at State Farm Center.  Mike took his cousin Scott with him to watch the Fighting Illini versus the Purdue Boilermakers.  The Fighting Illini won 63 to 37 so a great time was had by our two Illini fans.

More Food Gifts

We do not just eat food around here.  We cook and bake too.  I received a baguette baker from the girls.  They found it at the Chef Shoppe in Edwardsville.  It was the only one they had so I am not too sure how well it works.  On the other hand, it is made by Emile Henry in France and they should know how to bake baguettes.  So I tried it out for the first time this weekend.  The baguettes came out of the oven looking great.  They tasted great too.  The only problem was we could not get them out of the cookware.  So Laura had to quickly make a loaf of bread in the bread maker so I could make our smoked salmon appetizer.  Anyway, I have not given up yet on the baguette maker.  I will try again the next time one of my girls visits.