Christmas Activities!

 Jacob was part of a Nativity Christmas Program. He got to be Joseph. I dressed him up a few days earlier and read him the story. He became a huge fan of Joseph, and to this day asks if he can be Joseph. We have had several playdates where they end up reenacting the nativity and making up plot lines for Joseph and Mary.

 It was really fun. Thanks you Grandparents and Heather for coming.

Derek was a fill-in Shepard. He was so cute. Derek loves playing with little babies and shushing them. If I hold a baby he starts to freak out, so we still have room for improvement.

Gingerbread Houses!

 Here we are actually putting are gingerbread houses together. It was super fun this year and I had a great team! Dan helped design and make the gingerbread and Karin was my decorating partner.

 There was icing and candy everywhere! That is the way it is supposed to be!

 Team Dad, Mom and Heather where right next to me. I was glad because they didn't bump the table much. Rachel and Jim where on the other table, but I don't have a picture of them, They needed a table all to themselves because they where making mini houses and had to be very precise.

It was a fun night. I love holiday traditions!

Gingerbread House Competition

The Gingerbread House Competition has come to an end, and now we all has amazing candy houses decorating our kitchens! This year we had a number of rules. Only four consecutive hours to put house together, only edible materials, and much more. Thank you for abiding by these rules. Now to the voting. each TEAM gets two votes. You will need to comment on this blog post to cast your votes. Love you all and Merry Christmas!!
Team #1 - Richard, Lynne and Heather - Using homemade gingerbread and homemade candy! Look at those hand molded sugar animals!

Team # 2 - The Sink family - Using gingerbread and traditional use of red and green!

Team #3 - Rachel and Jim. They made a mini gingerbread village. Look at all those little roofs and little details!

 


Team #4 - Chad and Angie Blaser! They have the "alternative" house with graham cracker! Look at that height!

 Team #5 - Corey! He made one all on his own, that is dedication!

 Team #6 -  Eli and Jamie. Master of edible materials! They even used broccoli :)

Team #7 - Dan, Jessica and Karin! Homemade gingerbread with homeade candy making Santa's Reindeer Barn.

 

Santa!

 Tis that time of year. We get to take the children to go ask Santa for a present. As if writing him several times for a specific toy was not enough, we get to go ask him in person. Jake was extremely confused at first. He asked questions like " He can't come down and play, he needs to make toys", " the reindeer need to practice Mom, so they can fly everywhere on Christmas", and " Santa can't come, he needs to eat the food so he can have a big belly". Frankly, if you do not understand Jacob's statements you had a sad childhood. Call me and I will recommend some Christmas movies.

 After giving him many completely made-up explanations we where off to see Santa. Jacob was so excited. He knew just what he wanted, and even said thank you.

 Now Derek on the other hand... Well, Derek is terrified of Santa! Dan wondered if making Derek sit on Santa's lap was torture. I told him it was tradition, and if I had to do it as a child so will he. It is like the circle of life.If I was forced to face my fear every year so shall he.

Merry Christmas everyone!!!

Christmas time!

Christmas time is such a fun time of year, but sadly super busy for Dan. I have found the multitude of random activities going on to be a good distraction from Dan's absence. My friend Katrina was husband-less because of a Job as well. So we packed up the kids and headed to the "drive through light display" at Thanksgiving point. I remember as a kid driving through neighborhoods trying to find houses with a lot of lights. This is less gas and tons of twinkling lights. All fun, until we decided to go see the reindeer after. Why would that be bad? Well, if you dress your kids in their pajamas and planned to take Derek out of his carseat and straight to bed than this would have been not ideal. So Derek got to run around in hay, in December and in footsy pajamas.

We went back to Thanksgiving point this past monday for the Family Activity Night at the museum. Obviously Jacob requested the reindeer... so we stopped by again so he could talk to the reindeer. It was super cute. He asked" Hello, do you know Rudolph?", " its okay, you can fly back to the north pole now." Jacob makes me laugh, he truly thinks he can talk to the animals. Yes, Derek is trying to climb in with the reindeer.
 They had a Santa letter station all set up and little crafts for the kids. Jacob wrote his letter to Santa . Okay I wrote what he wanted but he did sign his name. It is getting better, the letters are actually slightly recognizable. He asked for a train, shark, and whale shark. And thanks to Amazon he shall be getting all three. We then went to the mud area of the museum, where the kids spent an hour playing with mud and dinosaurs. Jacob decided he was going to be a purist and play with only green t-rex dinosaurs. Derek's mission was to destroy anything Mom created out of mud. That is right, I played with the mud too. 
 I had my niece over the other day, Jacob and her play so well together. Because it is Christmas and Jacob is putting on a little nativity scene for his preschool they obviously had to play Mary and Joseph.