It's a not-so-Merry Meatloaf Christmas

I cannot make meatloaf to save my soul.  I can, however, take some moderately good pictures of my kiddos.

Let's start with the pictures, since they weren't a complete bust. 

I am determined to send out Christmas cards this year.  Last year there was no Hefter Family Christmas Missive because I was freshly pregnant and too tired and very crabby and my appetite was voracious and I had no idea what I wanted to eat and my pants were fitting a little (ok, a lot) tight and suffice it to say there was no way I was going to smile for a damn Christmas card, much less address and stamp the envelopes in a timely manner.  Something had to go last Christmas and since I'm pretty sure Abby would have staged a full-scale revolt if I nixed the Christmas presents, I let the Christmas card slide.  Fast forward one year: I have a waist again (sort of, well, more than I did last year, anyway, and I have ankles, too, but that's not really the point, I just like to point out that I have ankles again.) and loads more energy and two cute kids who I haven't photographed together for some time.  So I took advantage of the final days of fall here and we struck off for the wilderness.  And by wilderness, I mean the local park becasue this is the big bad city, after all.  And by we, I mean Uriah and me and the kiddos.

And we got these:

Do you have any idea how hard it is to get a 4-month old to look at you?  Quantum Physics hard, that's how hard (unless you're Uriah, then that analogy would not apply).  I did get a couple of photos where Finn and Abby are looking the same general direction, but I'll save those for the Chrsitmas card surprise...Uriah plans to pen a "family upadate" and I am trying to prepare myself, because I can but barely imagine what he will try to include in that letter.  I feel my editing pen quivering in my fingers...

And now, the meatloaf, which was not a complete bust, but did leave a little to be desired.

Flavor-wise, it was great.  I tried a recipe that was not my Mama's and I will admit, it was not as good but it was okay and I added bacon to the top and bacon really does make the world (me) smile.  I'm going to do a little combining of the two recipes to see if I can't make a new meat loaf hybrid.  First, though, I have to figure out how to make it more loaf-like.  I cannot seem to get it to stick together.  I've tried more bread,which you would think would help to dry it out a little bit.  Nope.  I tried two eggs, which I thought would help bind it a little bit better.  Not happening.  By the way, I hate the word loaf but I like meatloaf and, alas, there is no alternative.  Final result: Uriah has offered to tutor me in the art of making a meatloaf (lucky me) - I think we've come up with some possible reasons as to why my meatloaf does not, in fact, resemble a loaf.  I forsee another night of meatloaf in our future...and to be honest, I'm not really that upset about it.

Tonight, however, I will leave you with this:

This was the last picture that I took this afternoon and Finn was pretty much over it.  We had been to two different parks and at this point had wound up at Hillcrest (Uriah's golf course) where I had plans for some really good pictures on the cart path and maybe a couple scenic ones on the 18th hole.  Finn had other plans: namely, a snack.  He was a half an hour late for his afternoon snickety-snack and even his sister was not going to get him to smile one last time. 

I like it, though.  I think it accurately portrays our family.