Gingerbread Houses

Before we had kids we had all the time in the world. With that time we were able to create this master piece one year during Christmas. It took us about two weeks to do, working several hours each night. M and I had a lot of fun doing it and thought it would be fun to make a lighthouse one year. However, I was 6 months pregnant when we made this house and we have not had the time to make another in the past 7 years.

M put a hole in the bottom of the board and wired up a light
so our stained glass windows would shine at night.

Our snowman family.

Which brings us to this little beauty. M and I helped the girls to create this house last night. We all had a lot of fun and the girls ate WAY too much candy but it turned out pretty cute. M and I still have dreams of making a lighthouse one day, but it will probably have to wait until our girls are much older and can help out in a different way. Until then, it's fun to make things like this with them.

Do You Believe?

Auntie and I took the girls on a magical journey aboard the Polar Express to see Santa and his elves at his workshop. On our way to the station the girls watched the movie Polar Express so it would be fresh in their minds. When we arrived at the train station we didn't have to wait long before the conductor checked our tickets and loaded us into our car.

We sat in the Upper Dome so we could see everything and we received a special mug we got to keep. Once the train got going, everyone received hot chocolate and a ginger cookie. The ride was very pretty twisting through trees and over rivers. At one point we had to stop because there were caribou on the tracks. We ended up taking a switch-back to get to our destination.

Here is the conductor punching the girls tickets.

We finally made it to Santa's workshop; I was on the wrong side of the train so I didn't get any pictures. We saw Santa's elves and the train stopped so they could come aboard along with Santa.
K was very concerned that there was no snow at the North Pole. She kept asking where it was and if we were really at the North Pole. I told her to talk to Santa about it but she decided to ask the elf instead. The elf told her it was a little warm that day but it would snow by Christmas. That girl is too smart for her own good sometimes. I have a feeling she won't be a believer for much longer.

Here is K telling Santa she wants a T-rex toy that can
open it's mouth and walk around by pushing buttons on it's back.

L told Santa she wanted a Strawberry Shortcake Toy.
I was impressed that girls were so open and comfortable with
Santa. That has never happened before.

Santa gave each child a special bell.
The girls love their bells and rang them most of the day.

Here is the tramp who joined us on the train.
He was quite funny. He talked very fast and slurred his words.

All of us on our magical journey.
It was a lot of fun and the girls were well behaved.

When we got off the train we got a photo with all the elves and another one with Santa. It was so much fun. I definitely recommend doing this with your young kids. Don't wait until they are too old, they may spend more time questioning it then experiencing it:)

A Sad Sight

I went downstairs this morning to make the girls breakfast and this is the sight that greeted me. It was much worse than this picture looks; there was glass strewn more than five feet out from the tree. In my distraught state, I didn't think to take a picture until after we had picked up most of the glass and fallen ornaments. Even my acrylic snowman broke. The only things that survived were the stuffed ornaments, the plastic candy canes, and the metal ornaments.
Here is a picture of my favorite glass nativity ornament shattered into many pieces along with some glass from the hand blown ornaments I got our family the year before last.

What's left of the hand blown ornaments that were destroyed beyond repair. One for each of us that I bought the year before last. We had hung them up high on the tree so curious hands wouldn't break them, which only insured their shattered fate when the tree fell and they took the hardest impact.

I know it's just a tree but every year we pick out special ornaments for our girls that signify something they really like or an accomplishment for that year and give it to the them. My parents do this too. So to see them broken is very upsetting for me, they are ones I can't replace. Luckily the ornaments from my parents were able to be repaired by my husband as were most of my snowmen.

To end this post on a happy note, here are some pictures of the girls decorating our tree last night. I never did get a picture of the completed tree. Guess we will have to try again tonight after the glue dries.

K and L in their new jammies.

L putting on one of her ornaments.

K carefully hanging one of her ornaments.

Almost done with the tree.

L trying to put on the angel.

K tried to put on the angel too, but it was tricky.