So That Was Christmas

Christmas is over.  Is it June yet?  I'm not really even kidding.  The holiday season was crammed with fun and relaxation (and a large dose of sickness, but it didn't matter since we had no where to be).  Now I'm just ready for summer again!

It was lovely to have all four kids home from school with no commitments.  We were very busy making Christmas treats for friends and neighbors--but it was a fun kind of busy.  One day we invited a few neighbor kids over for a ginger bread house party.

 This year I decided to skip the kits and make my own gingerbread.  It's been 11 years since I did that.  That gives you an idea of how well it went the first time around :)   I thought maybe I should give it another try instead of letting the gingerbread win. 

 We had the walls, the roof, the candy and the cute kids--time to get started!

 You can see how well it went.  Haha.  Actually, while it was frustrating and it did take a ton of patience--it worked.  This flattened one was Henry's. 

 Slowly, slowly we got our walls to stay up.  I think that next time I need to whip my egg white frosting just a little bit longer.  I had to make 3-4 batches and I forgot about the mixer on the last batch.  It ended up being the most cement-like.

 It was a lot of fun and the kids liked their finished products.  We won't talk about how much candy got eaten.  My biggest regret was forgetting to put an old sheet on the table before we got started.  All that frosting took some serious elbow grease to clean up!

 But clean up was a must because that night the kids and I got to go see The Sound of Music downtown at the 5th Ave. Theater.  What a treat!  And Daddy was kind enough to miss out on the fun and stay home with Henry-Pie.

 I so enjoyed the whole show.  The 5th Ave. is quite beautiful and the kids needed a good dose of culture after stewing in sports most of their lives.  The girls always enjoy a chance to dress up and Ezra had an opportunity to use his new sport jacket.  Their Maria was perfect.  And the Reverend Mother had the most amazing voice.  The whole nun-choir was goose bump raisingly beautiful.

 The next few days were spent in mad preparation for a fancy Christmas Eve dinner with friends here at our house.  We seriously had so much fun making traditional and family Christmas dishes in preparation.  My sweet neighbor went out of town and let me use her extra fridge to stock away goodies in advance.  As per typical we got totally immersed in the prep and completely forgot about the camera.  I was very sad about that after the fact.  But I'll say that the candle light service was quite nice.  I love singing Christmas hymns with a group of believers.  The Christmas story never gets old.  Christ coming down for us as a baby.  What a beautiful and unbelievable thought.  All of our family was out of town, but we were privileged to have some good friends who were willing to come spend the evening with us. 
The next morning the kids were ready for presents.

 And then a nice big breakfast...with a few leftover decorations from the night before.

Now, Christmas day was a little strange.  It felt weird to have no plans with family.  But we all had a pretty nasty cold and it was nice to just lay around.  And then Caroline got the stomach flu.  Poor baby.  She spent most of the day asleep in her bed.  I almost didn't make Christmas dinner for us--but then a feeling of depression set in and I put the ham in the oven to combat it :)  

 While the rest of us enjoyed ham dinner, Caroline had some 7-Up.







 
 The perfect Christmas dessert--hot chocolate with candy canes.

 Ah, the peace and quiet of kids with new goods.
 

 Father and son bonding over hobby shop cars.

 AND--big news around these parts.   Nora finally saved up enough to buy her American Girl!  This has been a couple years coming.  You can tell she's not at all excited--haha.

And now Rebecca has joined our family.  Here's hoping your Christmas season was fun filled as well!