Gingerbread House

This is a new tradition. I don't recall ever making a ginger bread house growing up. I bought the first one a couple of years ago for Kate to make with my in-laws. That was actually the intent this time too, but since they had to cancel their trip we put it together ourselves. It is a fun little activity. I'm sure as they grow older, and more patient, the creations will become more detailed, but it's all fun and quite tasty.

Baking Cookies

Growing up we always made "Christmas Tree cookies." They were just one of those things we always had. They are a lemon crisp recipe, made with a cookie press.

Right after Justin and I got married my mom picked up a cookie press for me, so I could make my own. At the time Justin was working a split 3rd/1st shift as a chemist at a plating factory and I was still in college. Many of my classes were at night because they were being offered as both undergraduate and graduate courses for people seeking a Master's degree in special education. One night I got out of class a little early, so I rushed home to our little apartment and excitedly decided to make my first batch of cookies. As I was pressing out the second cookie sheet full of cookies, my sleeping husband stumbles out of the bedroom and demands to know what on earth I'm doing with a caulking gun at that hour (7:30 PM). We joke about my caulking gun every Christmas.

This year both of the girls were old enough to help me with the baking. It is a little more interesting baking with "help." They really enjoy it though and as they get older they'll gain lots of great memories (I hope) and perhaps some math skills too.

Christmas Traditions

I love Christmas. I love the music, the food, the family, and the decorations. I love all the traditions.

When I was a kid, I loved the white nativity set my parents had and the colored lights on the tree. We had an eclectic tree. The kind with ornaments that had been collected over many decades. Handmade and store bought. Quite the hodge podge. As we got older, my mom wanted a "pretty" tree, so she gave to us our sentimental ornaments, put a few of her own on a small table top tree, and started decorating her tree with gold and lots (and lots) of angels.

My Mama's trees now.

My house now looks a lot like hers did when I was growing up. Our tree with colored lights and ornaments from my grandparents tree down to the "Baby's First Christmas" Nate will get this year. My white nativity pieces like hers. I was able to repeat those things in our home.

Our tree from last Christmas morning--forgive me, our tree is up with lights on it, but the ornaments aren't yet. Busy, busy with the new baby!


Our Nativity Set

We've added some new traditions though. We have our own Advent wreath--something I grew up with at church. We light the candles and do Advent readings. We also have this great Advent box my dad built for us last year. We get to open a drawer each day. Often it's filled with a figurine or a tiny ornament. We talk about the significance of it to the Christmas story. Sometimes it is something to represent an activity. We're planning a few of those here soon--Kate's first Christmas program, building a gingerbread house, driving through town to look at Christmas lights, and baking Christmas tree cookies (another of my childhood Christmas traditions).

I hope that my children look back at their childhood Christmas seasons and remember these things more than the packages. I know that I do. Thank you to my parents for making those Christmases special.

Have a blessed Christmas!

Pumpkin Patch

It was a cool crisp fall day today and it has finally stopped raining, so we took the girls to a pumpkin patch.

We got had a nice lady take a picture of the four (five) of us.



We took a little ride on the wagon to the pumpkin patch.

We waded our way through the muddy patch of pumpkins for the girls to each choose their pumpkin. They really wanted pumpkins that they could carry, but the field with the smaller pumpkins was made inaccessible by the bog created by the recent rain, so they each choose rather large pumpkins. Kate could pick hers up, but not really carry it around.

We got treats as we were leaving too. Kate got popcorn, which she had been eying when we came in, Justin and Gabby each got a cookie, and I got some warm cider.

Resurrection Day

This morning began at o’dark early, as one of Justin’s former colleagues used to the say. We rose well before the sun and got the girls up.

For Kate and I, we went down stairs to our tomb to anoint Jesus’ body with oil and spices. Or as Kate put it, “To salt Jesus.”

Her reaction was a little less excited than I expected, perhaps because of the early hour, nearly two hours before she normally rises.

She looked at the empty burial cloths.



Then she turned to tomb upside down to be sure nothing was inside.



Finally she found Jesus, elsewhere on the table.

She ran upstairs and told her Daddy, “He has risen.”

I think while she wasn’t as excited as I had expected, she still seemed to get the object lesson. We went to the sunrise service at church and she heard the scripture passage that our lesson came from. She smiled at that.

We don’t do the Easter bunny around here, but the girls did get baskets with a little candy, toothbrushes, and shoes. They also got to hunt for Easter eggs after church. They’ve had a tired day, so they’re in their bath a few minutes early tonight.

Christmas Time

Christmas with children is, well, interesting.

We spent time with our families before Christmas, driving to Ohio to spend some time with Justin’s family and stopping briefly in Bowling Green on our way back. Kate handled the trip well. She did decide she needed to have the door cracked or a night light. The second night at the “Welcome Inn” (where we stayed while visiting his folks) we left the door cracked for Kate. A few minutes later she was screaming. Justin went back to check on her and she was yelling, “You did it! You did it to me!” The door had shut because the furnace kicked on. We used a shoe to prop it after that. Gabby started getting up earlier each day for the entire trip…culminating in a 4:55 wake-up on the day we left to drive home. Yikes.

While we were at Nan and Pop’s in Ohio Kate decided that she had three older siblings. I’ll call them the A triplets—she named them Axil, Axis, and Axin. While we were there, Gabby also started walking several steps at a time.

At Gam and PawPaw’s Kate handed out presents for the whole family. After she handed out the fifth present she said, “I’m going to be so sore tomorrow!” We all laughed so hard. Gabby was so tired during dinner the last night that she fell asleep while eating.

We got home on Christmas Eve at about six-thirty. It was a long drive, but uneventful. We got the girls off to bed so Santa could come.

Christmas morning brought packages and excitement. Kate had two favorites from her presents, an umbrella and a laptop with educational games. She spent a lot of time flitting back and forth between things yesterday and couldn’t seem to settle anywhere. Gabby enjoyed her booster seat, which she used as a stool to climb into the chairs until it was put at the dining room table for her. She also really likes the echo phones we got both of the girls. She wasn’t as impressed with the Cabbage Patch preemie I thought she would adore.

We had a family Christmas dinner of turkey and all the trimmings and read the Christmas story from Kate’s toddler’s Bible that afternoon.

It was not the day I pictured in my mind, but it was a good day.

I hope that you have had a joyous Christmas!

Advent

Advent at our house this year has been great! Kate loves it so much. We’ve structured our evening times to really celebrate this year, since she’s really at the age to “get” it. Every night we light our advent wreath over dinner. After dinner we read the verses from a card that I got a few years ago that go along with each of the candles. When we all get situated back in the living room, we open the box my dad built for us. We pull out the item in the drawer and discuss its significance to the Christmas story. We’ve been using a little nativity set pieces and I have some little ornaments, plus a set of bells for Sunday night—we’re going to be caroling and I though the girls might enjoy ringing along too. After that we sing some carols. Favorites this year have been “Go Tell it on the Mountain” and “Joy to the World.” Baby Gabby even said Jesus one night when we were talking about him.

The girls also love playing with the Fisher Price Little People Nativity. They’ve been evangelizing on our pirate ship too. Maybe that’s how they made their trip to Egypt?!? Probably not, but hey.