Gingerbread Night

 We spent the evening at Scott's brother's house doing our yearly gingerbread making.  It's a fun (and messy) tradition.  Every kid gets their own house to decorate and there is frosting and candy galore.  We've made soups the last few years so they get something in their stomach before the onslaught of sugar.

Red Fish's house and it's "flower garden"

 Red Fish got very into decorating her house.  We bought a kit that had four Snoopy houses in it so both girls got two tiny houses.  The red frosting makes Snoopy look like he was involved in a slaughter.  Scott's brother assembled the houses with melted brown sugar instead of frosting this year and they are incredibly solid this year.

New Fish's houses

 New Fish enjoyed sticking candy in her mouth more than on her house.  She is our resident sugar addict.  We have read several articles on the genetic links for sugar addiction like this one.  Poor New Fish never had a chance.  She got her sugar cravings from me!  Good thing her cousin E was at the gingerbread party.  New Fish loves her more than sugar and was following after her all night.  If E got more than two feet away from New Fish she would start calling E to come get her.

Hard At Work

Another Book & Seeing Stars

Teaching Montessori in the Home: Pre-School Years: The Pre-School Years (Teaching Montessori in the Home)

by Elizabeth G. Hainstock, Lee Davis

I'm not interested in starting an actual homeschool program for my kids but I'm always looking for new activities and ways to teach them things. I like the Montessori point of view.  This book had some nice ideas of projects to make for my kids.  There can never be enough activites or lessons in my mommy bag of tricks.

 Since our garlands didn't work very well the other day, the girls watercolored dozens of stars to string up around the house.  They never get tired of painting with watercolor.

Cousin Love

Babysitting tonight- there are three happy girls over here.  Little N is enjoying being fawned over.

Also finished my book while snuggling up the baby.

A Girl Named Zippy by Haven Kimmel
Kimmel has created a fabulous voice in this story.  It is delightfully funny and quick witted.  I laughed out loud at parts.  It is a quick and enjoyable read.

General Merriment

We've been busy being merry.  There has been plenty of Christmas stories read around here. We've been listening to Christmas music frequently.  Unfortunately New Fish is very picky about her Christmas music and if something doesn't live up to her standards she starts ranting about "stupid Santa music."

 

I rescued some coffee filters that someone was going to throw out and the girls have painted dozens of them with watercolors.  I planned to make garlands but the colors didn't come out that well on the recycled paper.  So I stiched a few piles together to make pom poms.  The girls are equally thrilled with them.   We went to drive through some Christmas lights, see reindeer and an ice sculpture.  We made candy and caramel apples with friends.  (sadly no pictures)  We have gingerbread houses to make, Santa to visit, and many other fun activities on deck.  It should be a great month.

 
Over the next couple of weeks I'm hoping to focus on the true meaning of Christmas a little more with my kids. I need to make sure my kids know that Christmas is not Santa's birthday.  I finished up a couple of Family Home Evening lessons on Christ's birth.  The girls have been playing quite a bit with their new little people nativity.  I'm so happy they love it and so happy they are leaving my other nativities alone now.

Recent Reads

Crossing To Safety by Wallace Stegner

The ""high life, the conspicuous waste, the violence, the kinky sex, [and] the death wish" are not in this book.  It is about everyday life, friendship, tragedy, mistakes and simple joys.  I loved Stegner's writing.  It is poignant and simple and he talks about friendship and relationships in a way I relate to.  I loved how real and honest the characters felt- their imperfections and stolen moments of grace.  The only downside to the book was that there were a few thin spots.  Important eras of the main characters' lives and relationships were glossed over, even when they were pivotal to the plot.  I kept wondering when Stegner would fill us in but he never did.

The story follows two young  married couples from their first meeting through their lives up until the death of one of the wives. Stegner says the two couples "meet in Madison, and are at once drawn together, braided and plaited into a friendship.  It is a relationship that has no formal shape, there are no rules or obligations or bonds as in marriage or the family, it is held together by neither law nor property nor blood, there is no glue in it bu mutual liking."


I especially loved the relationship between the two women.  There is something about a truly wonderful friendship that can stand the test of time and distance that is almost miraculous. "But Charity and Sally are stitched together with a thousand threads of feeling and shared experience.  Each is for the other that one unfailingly understanding and sympathetic fellow-creature that everybody wishes for and many never find."


I will definitely be reading more of Wallace Stegner's writing in the future.

The Elegance of A Hedgehog

by Muriel Barbery, Alison Anderson (Translator)

I saw the film (in French with subtitles) last month on a strange day for me. I had been dwelling on dark events and the movie preyed on that. Perhaps the strange feelings of seeing the movie followed me into the book.  The whole concept threw me for a loop a little. It was well written but I didn't enjoy it as much as I was told I would.   I can't shake the feeling so I don't feel I can review it properly.

Another Tree

 

My little child labor force of personal home decorators has been hard at work.  First they had to paint a background for the tree.  Some paintings were watercolor, others tempera.  Then the tree itself painted on contractor's paper.  Now they are busy making ornaments.  Round 1 was foam collages.  Next they are planning watercolored stars.  We may have to make another tree soon.  The entire house should be covered with Christmas decor in no time.

Homemade Ornaments

We made homemade ornaments this week.  The girls wanted their own tree 

(that they are allowed to touch) to decorate all by themselves.

 We used sculpey this time because we've had terrible luck with salt dough ornaments in the past.  I cannot figure out the right temperature and time to cook them so they won't explode.  The girls got really into rolling out the sculpey and using their little cookie cutters.  Painting the cooked ornaments was serious business.  They put a lot of care and thought into them.  It was really sweet.

After the paint dried we put little ribbons on them and the girls were thrilled to hang them up.  They are hung mostly on two branches of the tree.  I think it was rebellion against me because I made them keep the ornaments on the big tree spread out.  They can't wait to move the ornaments around again tomorrow.

My babies and their Christmas tree

Rock 'N Roll

Red Fish: "[New Fish] sometimes we've just gotta rock and roll." New Fish: "Ok [Redfish] let's dance!"

Tree Lighting

 For family night, we went to the city's Christmas tree lighting.  It was lame.  Very anti-climactic and the big man in red didn't even show up to sit in his throne. 

 Red Fish was delighted by the other characters who did make an appearance.  She kept chasing them down for another hug.  Who knew she loved characters so much?  After we left the park we decided to stop at the library and exchange our pile of books.  We happened to show up in time for a wild animal exhibition.  The girls got to pet a hedgehog, a red fox, two enormous rabbits and some tortoises.  They were thrilled. 

Unfortunately, New Fish turned out to be the wildest animal in the room.  As one woman put it "Displaying independence at a young age is a sign of intelligence.  She must be EXTREMELY smart." And yes, she is extremely smart.  Smart enough to drive me just short of totally bonkers.  Good thing she is so darn loveable.

Sundays

On Sundays during the month before Christmas, we spend an hour or so reading Christmas books.  We always do our Christmas bag story and then read whatever the looks interesting to the girls.

 Red Fish insisted that we needed to make hand-print ornaments again this year.  I made them at church with the kids in the nursery so she wasn't about to be left out of the fun.  I'm sure these are the first of many ornaments to be made in the next month.  I love that she is the driving force behind most of the art projects in our house.  Her appetite for creation is insatiable.

Decorating The Tree

 If my house were on fire, my Christmas ornaments would be one of the things I would grab on my way out the door.  They are one of my top five irreplaceable items.  I love collecting them and I love that they are from all different years and places. No designer trees for me. I insist on buying one (one for each of us that is) on every vacation.  I start collecting them in January.  It just about kills me if the tree doesn't go up the day after Thanksgiving and I hate taking it down.

My kids are starting to get in on the excitement.  It almost sends me into apocalyptic fits to allow them to help me put the ornaments on.  I am terrified they are going to ruin them. I also think it's important that they get to be a part of putting up the tree.  So I suffer with (mostly) silent seizures while we put the tree up.  The girls ooh and ahh over each trinket.  They dress up in Christmas jammies and try their very best to be careful.  So far, nothing has been permanently broken. I love my kids even more than my ornaments.

2011 Ornaments

 This is just a crazy one that I let the girls buy when we plundered a Christmas store that went out of business over the summer.  I figured a dollar ornament to distract them from the flying elbows and crazy shoppers was worth it.  Plus Red Fish thought they needed an ornament to represent their beloved dinosaur museum. 

My ornament from San Francisco and Red Fish's ornament to celebrate becoming a skier.

  

Our Cozumel ornaments

Our Zions National Park ornaments.  (They didn't photograph well- sorry.)

Grand Canyon North Rim ornaments

This is my favorite time of year.  I can't wait to finish putting up the tree!