SusieJ's Advent Calendar: December 23, 2008

The recipe: Stollen

Stollen is the most famous of the German Christmas breads, and this is a variation of how it is made in Dresden. It makes a good breakfast while opening presents, because it can be eaten one-handed.

The surprise: Radish night

Obscure food festivals are just so much fun, especially when they are in the middle of Advent, like Mexico's radish festival. It's part harvest festival, part Christmas market.

Let me tell you about my weekend

Saturday night we had about 50 adults, a dozen teens and 16 kids of kindergartener age or younger. That was the fun part.

The not so fun part was the full day of prep work before, and the eight hours of prep work that day, which included:

Picking up the full teapot by the spout and having the spout break off so that the pot shattered on the counter and spilled tea all over the clothes I had just changed into it.
Hearing my husband spill all the water from my anniversary bouquet on the dining room floor (but not breaking the vase).
Hearing my near four-year-old son call out "Daddy! I missed the toilet and peed on the floor!" (He pees sitting down.)
Walking into the door frame of the basement so hard I limped all day.
My friend, who helps every year with prep, snickering ever louder with each mishap.

Once the party got going, accidents were limited to colored sugar all over the floor and one broken glass from Target.

What's happened to you lately?