Nutcracker

I love the pleasure and concentration evident in these photos. It was Christmas Eve Day and I needed pecans cracked and shelled for candied yams. I called out, "Who wants to make 50 cents cracking nuts?" thinking Warren or Abigail would respond. But it was sweet Avery who called out, "I do!" and walked right into the kitchen. I had my doubts, but I showed her how the nutcracker worked and she set herself to the task and stayed at it quite a while. She is such a doll lately, so sweet. On a related note, whenever I am mixing something for baking, Avery always helps, and she loves to surreptitiously "sample" whatever we are eating. Always one finger sneaking into the bowl.