Always smilin'

 John's Feast...

This is John and he's 15 years old going on... I'd say about... 5.   He's just such a big kid.  Literally and figuratively.  He's the tallest in the family, so far.  The fact that he weighed nearly 11 pounds and was 23" long at birth shoulda clued us in.  As the fifth son, he doesn't let anyone else tell, intimidate, imply or force him into being someone he's not.  John is the epitome of practicality and doesn't even consider what anyone else might think of his quirky ways.  If it works, it works and that's the end of it.  What little sense of decorum he has, he overcomes quite easily.  He's confident.  John's extremely easy to please and excite.  He's the resident inventor and all-around visionary.  I'm thinking that he needs to get busy with that one brilliant invention that's gonna support us for the rest of our days... he made a Leiden jar the other day.  What's that?  Well, it collects and stores stray static and then you can release it with a pretty sizable electrical jolt.  Nothing heart stopping- might should avoid it if ya have a pacemaker.  His materials for the project were a sour cream container, some foil and tape with a couple pieces of wire.  Funny thing about John... there's really nothing he considers outside his ability to make.  I think that's where the "5 years old" part comes in.  A whole lot of times it doesn't turn out as he plans... but he doesn't seem to get discouraged.  Just revamps the plan or trashes the idea as too much trouble or not enough raw material.  A really fun guy... and we love him to pieces.
     

objects in picture are every bit as big as they appear

John prepared a very nice feast.  For an appetizer, he had chocolate stuffed croissants and honey roasted peanuts.  There was homemade hot cocoa- with french vanilla marshmallows- and an assortment of pop for his drinks.  The main meal was poppy seed chicken and these honkin' huge rolls.  With John, bigger is always better.  He used an entire 5lbs of flour in those rolls. He served them with cinnamon butter.  He had candy bar cake for dessert but, oddly enough, no one had any...wonder why?  That's OK, they all agreed the cake made a mighty fine breakfast!  His gifts were matchbox cars- the classic type, and the girls got little sun catchers they could paint themselves.  His table was decorated very tastefully with fresh pine and candles.  Kinda different from last year's "Alien Invasion" theme... Maybe he's more like 15 than 5 after all...