Haven’t seen too much snow yet this winter, but we got a few inches this morning and the girls jumped right in.  Plus I watched some videos on how to appropriately use my ExpoDisc last night and wow did it make shooting these snow shots easier with color and exposure.

One of my favorite things about the holidays are the little projects, which in our house aren’t so little, but are fun still. We do gingerbread houses and lots and lots of cookies. I make the gingerbread houses from scratch, using a pint cardboard cream container for interior support for the kids, it lets them come together quickly and not get smooshed down. My parents came over to help this year and we did a big project of putting them all together with lots of different candies. Celia mostly loved to unwrap and see all the different kinds of candy. Josie worked a bit more towards a design, also aware that she’d get to eat some of it later, she focused on her favorite kinds of candies (chocolates, not gummys). Josie had also made a little one in school that she liked too.

Jordi and I made our own semi-house that didn’t quite have enough walls to complete a whole house with whatever candy we could manage to separate from our children. Jordi did hide a kitkat in the bottom inside so he could find it and eat it later.

Then the following weekend it was cookie bake off weekend. Throughout December I made cookie dough with the girls and put it in the freezer, mostly the drop cookies. Then over one or two days I take it out and we shape and bake it all off. This entails a pretty big mess of flour but it’s generally pretty enjoyable. The girls did a fantastic job this year of working together to make the peanut butter blossom cookies, taking turns making the balls and rolling them in sugar. Then I got to re-roll the ‘balls’ to make them round again. This year I also focused on making a bunch of cookies that my mother could eat. I think I overwhelmed her with four different kinds that were non-dairy. Some were successful (like forgotten cookies with dark chocolate) but the peanut butter blossoms were not my favorite. Next year I need to use shortening instead of margarine, it gave them a funny unpleasant (to me) taste. Chocolate chip cookies with coconut oil and dark chocolate also came out well, but I’ve made those before. I didn’t have enough cookie tins to hold all the cookies.

Between me and my cousins, we made at least 12 different kinds of cookies (I think I made 8+ myself). It may have been a bit much, but the variety was fun and we did a pretty good job on them even if it did take a few weeks.

December is always a busy time celebrating multiple things, my birthday, Hanukah and Christmas all in a few short weeks plus all the decorating and such. We manage to cram it all in there but boy it is tiring to have so much to do every night after the kids finally go to sleep!

We started off with getting a tree but had a lot of trouble getting to decorate it as we had so many things going on like Hanukah parties and other kids birthday parties. So the tree stood there naked for a while. One day we got lights on. Every day we tried to get a little done and by the end of the week we had bejeweled it with ornaments and the star.

The girls still cannot resist touching everything on the tree so the fragile stuff goes about 4 feet up and a number of ornaments just weren’t hung on the tree for our own sanity.

Also during the same time we were doing Hanukah. I tried to get an interesting picture of the candles and failed, somehow I just couldn’t make it dramatic or anything.

We were very diligent this year and lit them for every night but this combined with my birthday made Celia oh so very confused. Every time we lit up the candles she wanted to sing Happy Birthday. But then by the end of the week she was disappointed it was not ‘Hanukah time!’, as she called it, once we were done. Kids do latch onto those traditions quickly! And we were also doing our advent calendar simultaneously so that added to the confusion. Josie insisted that we only do the advent calendar once every two days so that both of them could do one at the same time. Since they were both amenable we went with it, but I think Celia will catch on that Josie got more of the ‘exciting’ things to put on the felt tree next year. Josie was very sweet and let Jordi and I do the last day’s item, the santa, in her stead.

We went to two Hanukah parties this year which was awesome because someone else got to stand there and do the frying and I got to enjoy multiple days of fried potatoes! Plus of course the people were fun to hang out with too.

The kids aren’t the only ones hanging out in the sun

And then there’s Fred, who wants nothing to do with the wars and hides behind the TV.

Didn’t we just have Christmas? Oh yes that’s why there are such big boxes around, like the ones from our new suitcases.

Right after I took these pictures, Celia insisted I get her her camera and that I get in the box to have my picture taken. She doesn’t yet understand how to aim the camera though yet. Then Josie got on my lap for more Celia-taken pictures. Mostly she takes pictures of her feet so far.

Yesterday on our last day of winter break we had this intense light coming in through our front windows right only my nicely playing children. Celia was working on the puzzle. Josie was helping her. Josie offered to show her how it was done, and then take it apart so Celia could do it herself. It is a three layer wooden puzzle that tells the story of building a house. Celia has now found it easy enough that she does it upside-down so you can’t even see the pictures to help figure out where things go.

As it seems most every year, December gets really busy really quickly. We have my birthday, Hannukah, and then Christmas after barely recovering from Thanksgiving and we’re often traveling twice in that time. So while I’m still taking pictures I get behind in posting them and documenting our lives. I know you’ll forgive us. So let’s start at the beginning.

At the end of November, Josie dropped ballet and picked up a new gymnastics class at a fancy gymnasium. This is serious gymnastics and Josie’s jumped right in. In the beginning she couldn’t do a bridge at all, now she can get her head off the floor and is almost all the way up.

She’s inherited her dad’s flexibility I fear. She’s learned so much, although the cartwheels and handstands still stymie her, she’s gotten much braver on the high balance beams and makes a great effort in class. We’re signed up for more classes this month and I can’t wait to see how much progress she will continue to make. They do floor, vault, beam, and bars.

Celia and Josie celebrating the new year

We went out to dinner with the girls before they crashed after a busy day of playing and sledding and Jordi and I got to sit down and watch a whole movie!

Have a great one! Here’s some of our photos that didn’t make the card.

Walking home from a friend’s house, we walked by an inflatable Santa. Celia starts to say ‘don’t like him!’ which is pretty much what she says for everything she’s afraid of, including pretty much all trucks these days. So Josie says, “Don’t worry Celia, Santa is just a ho… ho… ho….!”

That’s right, Santa the ho, he does give it all away for some cookies and milk ya know.