A large group of friends were arriving on Sunday at 6:00 to sing Christmas Carols with us. We had the house clean (well, as clean as we can get it ). We had food ready. We had children bathed. It was 5:55 and all we had left to do was get the hot chocolate going in the crockpot.

But first, I must digress and give you a little background to this story. Cassie (Brett’s friend) showed up in church one day wearing a very pretty jumper. Brett and I both noticed it immediately and said, “Hey! We have that same fabric to make a jumper for Brett.”

I should probably admit that I’d had the fabric for over a year, and hadn’t quite found time yet to make a jumper out of it. So Cassie graciously offered to make the jumper for Brett! She also made one for her own sister. So the three of them all have matching jumpers. Brett requested that they all wear them on Sunday evening.

Brett had showered, done her hair, and put on her jumper. She had put on an apron to protect it. At about 5:50, she took off the apron in preparation for the guests arriving. At 5:55, Mom asked her to get the cocoa so we could finish making the hot chocolate. At 5:56, Brett opened the lid to the cocoa and POOOOOFFFFF!!!! This happened:

I didn’t know that cocoa could explode like that, did you?

Brett managed to contain herself while I ran and got the camera. But as soon as I finished taking this photo, she burst into tears (you can see them forming in her awkward smile).

We carefully took the jumper off, and then Dad had a brilliant idea. “Get the shop vac!!”

Why not?

So we pulled out the shop vac and shop vac’d the jumper, the shirt, and Brett (well, she actually washed her face and hands). It worked great – there were some faint cocoa markings on her sleeve still, but nothing that anyone would notice.

So, Brett got to wear her jumper. And much to Brett’s chagrin, Mom got to tell everyone about the hazards of exploding cocoa!