Gary is the

best little Christmas elf.

He does very helpful things like put Merry Christmas labels on the water bottles. 

He also steps right up when, during the mid-baking of 6 dozen breadsticks, my oven died.   Yes, died.  Fortunately I was able to send two pans home with my Visiting teachers to bake in their ovens. 

Dead breadsticks!

Then Gary searched for a repairman who gave us the news that it would be $500+ to fix.  Since the oven is at least 12 years old, we went out and searched for a new one.

Gary is also a good little elf because he recognized my very big need to have a "true convection" oven so I can bake 6 dozen cupcakes at one time. 

So there will be no more Christmas baking until the 22nd when we get the new oven. Fortunately the range still works, so I could cook the soup for our neighborhood party today.