Pre-Christmas Festivities

I believe after some grousing, my last post indicated Christmas pics would be posted and highlights described. In the interest of organization, I thought I would split it into two, this post focusing on pre-Christmas merriment. After having so much fun with the gingerbread house kit last year, we (meaning me) decided to take it one step further and do one from scratch. It was the closest I have ever come to utilizing my PE license, but I think it turned out great. Kyle really got into decorating it and was so proud of the end result. Grant enjoyed eating the frosting and candy decorations. The scale of the chimney (well over half the roof line was consumed) amused Jason and I, but allowed Kyle to complete the project with a gingerbread Santa. Ryan’s favorite was the spice drops (he must get that from me) and he new exactly where to find them on the house and when the stash ran out, he put his hand out and just said “Gone!”. And would you check out the bokeh in the pics? Pioneer Woman would be so proud. Those hazy dots came courtesy of a cedar Christamas tree Jason aquired. It was orginally for the boys room but ended up finding a home in the living room. I actually grew to love it.

The other big event was our annual trip to Crown Center, complicated this year by the fact that Kyle is in school all day and we couldn’t go during the day and avoid the big crowds. Since avoiding crowds is so important to me, I picked Kyle up as soon as he got out of school and we headed downtown, telling Jason to just meet us there. The plan worked and we were able to get the Santa pic with only a short wait. During the wait, the boys played in the Crayola land that was set up. I was able to watch them play while waiting in line while Kyle did a great job sticking close to Ryan to keep him out of trouble and make sure he had a good time. He is so patient, he helped Ryan onto the slide time after time and never complained. Jason conveniently showed up just after we had the picture in hand and we headed to Fritz’s (the greasy burger dinner Jason and I look forward to all year).

The aforementioned Cedar Christmas tree was not aquired in the dead of night from the side of the road. We are not that redneck.