So I'm skipping over Christmas pictures, although we'll do those too, right to Birthday of an Eight Year Old, the First (first birthday party, and first 8yo). She's so big and tall and capable and gorgeous I can hardly stand it. 
There were gifts, and grandparents, and good clean cake fun, about which I must say the following: I made one hell of a beautiful cake, for a change. Usually my layer cakes are not things of beauty, although they're way tasty. This one was way tasty, fun to make (buy good chocolate! chop it up! make it into frosting!) and, if I may, *gorgeous.* It was like the pretty pretty princess of cakes. It looked like a layer cake ought to. I was pleased.
There were gifts, and grandparents, and good clean cake fun, about which I must say the following: I made one hell of a beautiful cake, for a change. Usually my layer cakes are not things of beauty, although they're way tasty. This one was way tasty, fun to make (buy good chocolate! chop it up! make it into frosting!) and, if I may, *gorgeous.* It was like the pretty pretty princess of cakes. It looked like a layer cake ought to. I was pleased. Upcoming blog fun: gorgeous nieces! (Prettier than cake, even.) Birds of prey! Out-of-order Christmas pictures! More running highlights as Mama starts training for a half marathon in the spring! More kid pictures as they continue to be cute in front of the new camera! The possibility of entertaining pressure-cooker stories as we get more adept with the new/old kitchen gadget! In short, all sorts of domestic fun, mitigated by meandering pedantic musings about whatever. It's a blogger's life, and it's a good one.
