Since we were all a little down because of Katie's trip to the hospital,
we thought that we would jump start our holiday mood.
As I'm sure is recommended recovery for all pneumonia patients, we
decided to stop by the tree farm on the way home from the hospital.
Do not pass GO. Do not collect 100 dollars.
After poo-pooing about six trees, Katie decided on the "perfect" tree.
Mikey agreed.
Welcome to the family, little tree.
I have a feeling, although not quite confirmed, that Katie enjoys the
free candy cane offered by the tree farm more than the actual
selecting of the tree itself.
Mike was not as impressed.
He traded in his sticky candy cane for a nice juicy
apple.
The next day, Mikey and Huzbend went off to swim lessons while
Katie and I stayed home and decorated the tree.
When we were done decorating, Katie gave it a hug to welcome it to the house.
Next up, gingerbread city.
Katie had been bugging me for at least two months about
making a gingerbread house. I promised her that we would do just that.
I mean, how hard could it be? Plus we had A LOT of extra halloween candy to get rid of.
We whipped up a big batch of gingerbread that actually yielded enough
dough to make two houses and a bunch of ginger people.
I can't use traditional royal icing because it's made with uncooked eggs.
Katie is allergic to them.
So, I searched the internets and with its help
made an icing with confectioners sugar, lemon juice
and glycerine.
Here was the first attempt at assembly.
Icing was just a bit too runny, but held
together with the help of some support cans.
What a frustrating process.
Not satisfied with attempt number one, I put together another house.
Icing just right. Not so bad this time.
A few days later it was decorating time.
I tried making the icing again and again it was too runny.
So, I gave up and used some can frosting to get the job done.
The kids must have ate at least a cup of frosting each.
Katie did a good job decorating and ate her fair share of the candy.
Mikey put one piece of candy on one house and then proceeded to eat
marshmallows the rest of the time.
They were quite silly by the time decorating was over.
Here are the best two of my many attempts at a posed picture.....
In between the gingerbread chaos was the preschool holiday party.
Here are the kids visiting with Santa and Mrs. Claus.
As if they did not have enough sugar in their little systems, they were
able to decorate their own cookies.
Yes. There is a cookie buried under those sprinkles.
Katie decided to eat her cookie right then and there.
Mikey decided to pack his away in a ziploc and suck
the frosting off the knife instead.
Mikey also decided that he loved Santa Claus.
He hung out with him most of the evening.
If Mikey wasn't eating, he was with Santa.
They even played party games together!
Next up, it was my birthday.
Yay me. I'm 38 now.
And as such, I deserve delicious and totally NOT nutritious food.
First up, for breakfast, Huzbend cooked up some Stuffed French Toast.
OMG. Have you ever heard of the term
"Foodgasm"?
The kids enjoyed opening my presents for me.
They were nice and let me help a bit.
The sun was a-shining and so we
did lunch at Panera and hit a local playground.
More yummies to come for dinner.
Eggplant parm, of course.
And then the piece de resistance.....
APPLE CRISP.
OHHHHH BAYBEE!
A few days later we received a package in the mail from Granma.
To our surprise, there was another gingerbread house inside!!!
This one was soft and gooey and really yummy (unlike my rock hard gingerbread).
Katie and Mikey ate all the trees and extra people that populated the box, leaving just enough
for the house.
It was try number three for gingerbread house assembly.
Icing was perfect this time!
I was able to put together the house with no
help from support cans at all.
Whooopeeeee!
And then it was time for decorating. UGH.
The whole house smelled like frosting and marshmallows.
Katie and Mikey were literally bouncing off the walls.
I swear, if either of them had gotten a paper cut at the time, they would have
bled marshmallow fluff.
Shazam!
We now had FOUR gingerbread houses.
Two we made, one that Katie decorated at school and one from across the country.
Welcome to Sugar Heights!
And now, a little video distraction. Enjoy!
