The Christmas Bread

Our first Christmas together was a lot of fun. We drove up to Mountain Home on the 24th. The roads were clear and sunny. We were grateful to get there all in one piece. There was snow on the ground with a White Christmas put down as hopeful but not likely. We went to bed that night with great anticipation for the next day. We got up bright and early and made our way down to the glowing Christmas Tree. We had a good time exchanging presents. Tiffany's parents gave us a bread maker that we were excited about. It had been kinda funny that for about a month or so, whenever Bed Bath & Beyond came up, I had said we should use some of the left over gift certificates to get a bread maker and Tiffany kept stalling or saying we should wait for a sale or something. Tiffany was good though and I never suspected we might be receiving on for Christmas. Tiffany got some clothes, gift certificates, bath stuff and jewelry. I got this neat coffee table book on the brain. Tiffany also got me a board game I never suspected she would get for me. Axis & Allies. I also got a pair of my favorite shoes, New Balance.

It was a different experience being away from my own family. I really enjoyed being with Tiffany's family. They were very welcoming, warm, and made me feel at home. I wish I hadn't been sick most of the time. It was great to be there to share in some of their traditions.

Now, the Bread Maker we received was very exciting and inspired visions of freshly baked bread just ever present in our home. I have and always will be a sucker for fresh bread and butter. Sadly we can say that expectations did not quite live up to our dreams. With a lot of hope and excitement I put all the ingredients in for the first loaf and let the machine do its job. What the final result was though was more of a brick than bread. If someone had broken into our apartment at that moment I would have grabbed the loaf and thrown it at the intruders head. It would undoubtedly have caused serious injury.

Round two was only slightly more successful. The loaf came out a tab bit higher and less dense but still not quite the same as what I had imagined. We ate that one though and I thought the taste at least was good, especially with a little butter on it. Loaf number three was a store bought mix in the hope that it was just my bad measuring skills that had doomed the previous attempts. This one fared just slightly better than the second one, and while edible, it still was disappointing in form and size.

Since number three we have allowed our bread maker to rest after all the hard work it put in. If anyone out there was some suggestions for conquering the bread maker we would gladly take them.