Michelle wanted to make gingersnaps: make the dough, roll thin, refrigerate, wait.

What I didn’t know was, she’d bought a cherry-blossom cookie cutter in Japan and so she just showed me the finished cookie sheet covered in dozens of tiny little cherry blossoms (even if not exactly pink), ready to pop in the oven; a conversation followed of cherry blossom festivals and of my childhood memories of the magnificent trees around the Washington DC tidal basin, a gift from the Japanese.

Meantime, the computer is just not cooperating with the newly-arrived Parker pictures tonight, so I tried trouble-shooting with this old photo–which did work, and then it was just too cute to put back on the shelf when I didn’t have anything else that would show up.

Elmo’s his favorite these days, but Cookie Monster’s right up there.

Oh, and: how a dirty diaper saved Christmas night and my cousin’s house.