I’m trying something new today. I’ve been sitting at my keyboard for 20 minutes, staring at a blank screen, not because I have nothing to say but because I have too many things to say. How to fit them all in? So, instead of a long, detailed post about everything, I’ll give you a little recap. Easier for me, easier for you.

• Photography: My usual setup is by the windows in our family room. Great light there – not perfect light as we have not one single north facing window in our house (okay, there’s the one over the bathtub, but I’m not sure that qualifies as one for consideration) – but the best we’ve got. I’ve been using that area for almost a year now, and it never occurred to me that it’s where we put the Christmas tree each year. So…I’ve had to move it all into the office, where there’s another semi-decent window. The photos in this post are the first I’ve taken there.
• Photography, continued: About six months ago (give or take), I won a photo contest sponsored by Alaska Seafood. The prize was Lightroom software…and I’ve just now taken the plunge into learning it and editing photos with it. And at the same time, I decided to start shooting in RAW vs. jpeg. All is can say is…WOW! I am so, so happy with the switch. I have always had a love/hate relationship with photography, but this change has pushed me solidly over into love. I know I have so much to learn but I’m excited about it!
• It’s the Christmas season: And I am loving it. But we’re also so busy that my head is spinning. But I’m loving it!
• It’s time: Remember way back in February when I talked about how we thought it might be time to send our sweet dog to better pastures? It’s happening sometime very, very soon. As in days. Alan is scheduling the appointment for Friday or Saturday. I can hardly bring myself to think about it, let alone talk about it. I know that it has to happen, but the difficult part for me is that I’m his caretaker in this life, the one he trusts to never, ever harm him. {okay…tears are taking over now so I’m going to have to change this subject}
• Emails: I’ve been getting the sweetest emails from readers lately and I just want to say “thank you”! Nothing makes me happier than hearing about how much you love one of my recipes or that a technique I’ve suggested worked for you. I really appreciate when someone takes the time to let me know; it makes all the hard work of blogging absolutely worth it!
• Weather: It’s going to be 70 degrees today. It’s December! Crazy!
• The bird: There’s a bird that flies into one of our windows every single morning. Same window, same time, every morning. It flies up and pecks once, trying to get in…and it does it over and over and over, all morning long. This has been happening for six months! My best guess is that there’s a reflection in the window at that time and the poor bird thinks it’s a tree or another bird? We had the outside of our house painted a few weeks ago and the painters had to leave the windows open for awhile. The bird finally got in! And promptly freaked out. It eventually found its way back out and resumed its regular window-pecking routine the next day. Just as it’s doing at this very moment.
• The kids: Every year, Santa sends the girls their own video. They look forward to getting them every year and I look forward to seeing their excitement! Santa has already delivered their videos this year and I can’t count the number of times they’ve watched them. {And they’re free!}
• The apples: I found the apples for this recipe at our local grocer last week. They are the tiniest little apples you’ve ever seen – a third the size of a regular apple! I couldn’t get them in my cart fast enough. I’m going back today to see if they still have them and I will buy every last one!

Speaking of those apples…they were the perfect size for this recipe. I love apple cakes – as does Alan – but a full-sized apple wouldn’t work for this recipe; the cake would be done before the apple was cooked through. But tiny little baby apples? Perfect!

But what if I can’t find little baby apples? Feel free to just peel and chop regular apples and fold them into the batter as in the original recipe. I still suggest making four mini-cakes (but, as you know, I’m a big fan of mini-anything; I used these mini springform pans). I love the look of the whole apples baked into the cake, don’t you? It’s two recipes combined into one: baked, stuffed apples and apple cake. (Like a turducken, only cute and not weird :)