The great cupcake experiment

I was to bring dessert for the New Year's eve party, and I decided to make cupcakes because they're so hip and chic and stuff like that. I found loads of recipes and stuff online, but ended up getting my three recipes from The Cupcake Bakeshop at http://cupcakeblog.com/.
It was hard to choose from the many fascinating recipes, but I ended up going with the Devil's food with chocolate buttercream, the eggnog with eggnog pastry cream and bourbon cream cheese frosting, and the coffee. I opted to frost the coffee cupcake with coffee buttercream and a spot of whipped cream, rather than the whipped cream and mini-donut from the recipe.

Christmas in Seattle

Stella, the expert drummer!Sophia races around the circuit.
Kiri downtown.
Ross downtown.
Parents downtown - they didn't know I was taking a picture!


Ross reading with Sophia.Sophia and Stella doing business at the playground.
Sophia slides with mom!
Stella slides with mom!
The kids hang out with daddy!
Stella in the throes of present-opening.
Sophia and the plastic cuttable fruit.
Stella, Christmas morning.
The glow of Christmas.
Jeff assembling a toy.

The Christmas day snowstorm!The girls see us off!

Dog park

This was actually an early December visit to the dog park. First snow. Toad and Luka playing like puppies.

New year, new blogs

A brief summary since my last post in October (!):
Thanksgiving at our house. Ross' mom Sara, Su and Vince came over. We ate beef tenderloin, then saw the Frida Kahlo exhibit at the Walker.

In early Dec I taught three ice climbing clinics at the Sandstone Ice Fest. Way cool experience.

Went to Seattle for Christmas. Had excellent family time. Saw cool art at the museum. Played with my nieces Sophia and Stella (Frankie and Stessa).

New Year's eve at Ben's house with Bill and Susan, and another couple. Excellent food cooked by Bill of the other couple. Martinis, played Guitar Hero.

Been climbing at the gym with Katie. She rocks. We're doing leads and getting stronger.

Time to start the new year with some new energy and determination!
My desires (I hesitate to call them resolutions, because I'm a big baby and don't want to jinx myself):
to run a half marathon
to write down goals
to do some painting
to do more wood carving
to become more confident on a motorcycle
to find an outlet for writing, get some feedback
to officially start a book club with my cousin Sara