Gingerbread!

This guy made the 3 batches of dough and rolled, cut & baked most of the pieces for the houses.

On your mark, get set.... GO!

I love the tradition of making gingerbread houses! (I like eating them, too.)

Happy Valentines Day!

From two of my girls.

Unfortunately, most of us are spending the day laying around, taking tylenol & trying to get better. It seems we've gotten some kind of bug for Valentines. At least there's candy to give us some comfort. :)

Valentines Traditions

Several years ago I hastily whipped this pocket thingee together so that we could do something official for Valentine's Day. I told myself at the time that I would come back later and make something a little nicer, but that later hasn't happened yet. (It usually doesn't!)

This year, we drew names. Each person is to write a letter or make a list of all the nice things they can think of about the person whose name they drew. (and yes, I've heard a couple of "but I can't think of anything" comments...) The list or letter will then go into that person's pocket on Valentine's Day Eve. I've also got a few treats lined up, but shhh... don't tell!

Have a joyful Christmas!

:)

More Christmas Traditions - Gingerbread!

Christmas Traditions

Our tree is up! The kids managed to find a decent one in our woods yet again. They cut it down, set it up and decorated it all by themselves! It has the usual assortment of perler bead creations, paper snowflakes, candy canes and of course, popcorn scattered about its branches.

Another one of our Christmas traditions is to make & string up 25 stockings at the beginning of December. Each one is filled with a treat for everyone (like a hershey kiss) and we open one every morning until Christmas.

One of these years, I'm going to make it really cute by using children's Christmas socks. Maybe next year...

I love Christmas with kids - they make it so much fun!

Happy Resurrection Day!!

"Jesus said unto her [Martha - the sister of Lazarus, whom Jesus raised from the dead], I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:

and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?"

John 11:25-26, italics mine

Lord, I believe!

Our Christmas

We had a really wonderful Christmas.

Christmas eve dinner at my mother-in-law's:
She is so good at making things pretty (and delicious!).

Monkey Man got glasses 2 days before Christmas. Doesn't he look handsome? Costumes were the theme this year for these two critters:

Plates of goodies to give away (and to nibble on as well)

Gingerbread houses

Whew! We [I] survived this year's gingerbread house building. Last night, the some of the ducklings and I rolled, cut and baked enough gingerbread to make 8 houses.

The gingerbread lumbar yard:
After the ducklings went to bed I whipped up a triple batch of royal icing, and with the help of some jam and pickles, I assembled the houses. The icing worked perfectly and dried fairly quickly.

The next morning, we had rowhouses.

Once our friends arrived (7 more kids), we gathered our decorations like so:

and started decorating. The boys were interested in seeing just how much candy and icing their houses would support. The girls paid more attention to aesthetics.

In the end, all of the houses looked very pretty, with their gobs of white icing and colorful candy and sprinkles. I put them on the piano and placed Christmas lights around them. They smell yummy, too.

Our first occupants moved into one of the houses tonight, too. Actually, it wasn't a house - it was a manger. Shhh... don't disturb the peaceful scene...

:)