Holidays begin

Our first attempt at making our own gingerbread house. I made the dough, cut out the shapes, & baked them a few weeks ago. Then the day after Thanksgiving, we put the pieces together with frosting and let it dry for a few hours before decorating. However, I should have researched a better frosting to use because a couple minutes after this beautiful picture was taken, it all fell apart!! The frosting wasn't dry enough or strong enough to hold it together...ah well...it was fun for a bit! It was a great way to use up a lot of our Halloween candy! :)

Oh yes...here it is by the end! The two roof pieces are just laying flat across the top and Oma called it the DOUBLE WIDE gingerbread house! HA! Yes, it fits right in our little town in Missouri! :) By the end Ali was just pouring on the candy and frosting...it was lovely!!

Our little town had a little old town celebration to light the downtown Christmas tree...we got to make crafts, eat cookies, drink hot chocolate, and SEE SANTA!! Last year Ali didn't want anything to do with Santa...she was a bit scared. But this year she REALLY wanted to see him and tell him all of her wishes. Here are the 3 things that she told him she wanted:

1. a princess scooter with a basket (check...thanks Nana!)
2. An Ariel baby (Hmmm...didn't know about that one)
3. Legos (she said that at the prompting of our neighbor who said "Don't you want some Legos for Christmas??" because our neighbor knows that I bought some for Ali!! Thanks Susan...the suble mind game worked!!)

By the way...this poor Santa had all three of us on his lap...Sorry!! But it was best that Lizzie didn't want to sit on his lap because her pants and diaper were a bit damp that night! Ugh...cloth diapers aren't very forgiving when you leave one on for too long! have I mentioned that I CAN'T WAIT to be done with diapers?? I'm so eager that I had Lizzie try on undies the other day just to see what would happen...well by the end of an hour (and two accidents "uh oh" she says) she looked at the potty and said, "NO DIS"...meaning "No this"...or "Not that potty thing AGAIN I'm much too busy to be bothered"!