Little Gingerbread Houses

Enough candy canes and marshmallows and cereal and graham crackers were consumed in the making of these little miniature houses to build and decorate at least a few more. I really liked using cereal for decorating--it sticks well and balances out all the other sugary treats a bit. The hearts made of two candy canes are adorable, no? And the cutest moment was when CC put a few decorations on the frosting I had spread and proceeded to lift the house up to her wide open mouth. There she is, wistfully looking at her creation.

Christmas Play Dough, Part 2

And here is how we used some of the Christmas play dough on a Sunday morning. The girls are still wearing the pjs from the sleepover with Alex!

The Christmas Tree

Patrick took the girls to get our tree and to eat pie a la mode at our local diner. It's a tradition three years strong now! Another tradtion in the making: leaving our tree with nothing but lights for a week or so before decorating.

The Sleepover

Alex, the girls' ever popular, admired and adored cousin, came for a Christmas sleepover last night. The fun began immediately after my sister's car drove off and the children demanded to put their pjs on even though it was just 5 pm. The fact that their jammies matched was another reason to celebrate and go generally bonkers. They danced, jumped on the couch, cuddled, wrestled, dined, played with their lovies, enjoyed holiday treats and cartoons and books, and after an hour of alternating giggles with bickering finally fell asleep, Sabrina and Alex in one bed. I loved having another child here at night, especially a little boy!

Landing

Is there a spot in your home you just can't get right? For us this is the upstairs landing. There's always a pile of stuff on its way down or that just came up. There's always laundry in need of washing or semi-folded waiting to be put away. There are always shoes and socks and empty cups no one knows what to do with. But today we had a good landing day, the light coming in just so and hints of the season brightening the space.

Christmas Play Dough

One rule for this time of year is that all projects must somehow be related to the holidays... so instead of plain old play dough we made holiday play dough by adding glitter and sticking to holiday colors, including blue and silver for Hanukkah, which Sabrina has been learning about in school and desperately wants us to adopt.

Dusting

I think the prettiest and simplest way to decorate chocolate cupcakes is with a dusting of powdered sugar. And for vanilla, some cocoa. Sometimes I use these stencils. Especially the dots turn out really cute.

Saint Nicholas

Saint Nicholas delivered tiny goodies in the girls' slippers. This and the daily advent calendar chocolate made for a sweet morning. I usually like to wait until the 6th to really begin my holiday decorating and celebrating, but this year things got to an earlier start since Sabrina is keenly aware of the seasonal calendar and wanted to waste no time at all.