Have A Holly Jolly

So December is here! I feel like it has crept up on me this year and am still trying to get into holiday mode. Despite this, I took advantage of the great weekend weather and put up our Christmas lights. More and more neighbors are putting theri lights up and I love it. It's so friendly and fun. The brighter the neighborhood, the better. Even if they are all ghetto like mine with bulbs burned out and ending too early before the roof stops. Soon we'll take car rides with the kids and scope out what people have done. PS- The nostalgic girl in me nearly bought a big, plastic Santa figurine for my yard....not only is it a storage problem but it's probably tacky. Yes? No? What about thick rolls of white batting on my lawn?

Anyway, as we've been getting things decorated and up, the kids are remembering more and more traditions that go along with it. Gingerbread houses is one of them. And hey, I like cookies so we did some already. I made the dough (this is the best, btw- I use it every year) and used the molds from WS to make the pieces. Um... yeah. It might have been a great idea, but these need some modification. Modification which I am more than happy to help with. The little slots don't fit together no matter how careful you are when you slide that dough on the sheet to bake. So I ate them off. Each one. Yup. It was way good. I ate them and slapped the royal icing on there and they held together just fine and dandy. Elliet and Luke had fun decorating (and then eating) them. Sadie, as you can see in the picture, did not finish her dinner so her's is still naked, waiting to be adorned today... or eaten by me. Nothing is safe in this house. Ah... the holidays....

(I especially like how both kids have frosting on their faces)