Other December Happenings

I guess before December is over I should blog about the other things we did this month, since they were photo-worthy. Earlier in the month Dan and Mandy treated us to White Christmas as a Christmas gift...but then Mandy got sick so they couldn't come with us and we took Mom and Trey instead because Richard was too exhausted from all the overtime at UPS to come. I love White Christmas - I think I've watched it 6 or 7 times this month, so I was very excited to see it on stage.  They adapted the story line slightly to flow better in a stage environment and some of the musical numbers are different than the movie, but it was really wonderful. I must say though, I was very disappointed in the red dresses during the final White Christmas number. Those dresses in the movie are fabulous - they are iconic! The stage versions aren't even close to the glamour and sophistication of the originals. Otherwise, awesome show.

 Yiayia sent us home one night with a "fun" little craft for me and Kate to put together...a foam Christmas train. She and Kate had already built a foam gingerbread house and it wasn't too bad...but this train? It was not easy. Pretty much the only thing Kate could do to help me was punch all the little shapes out of the foam sheets and then decorate at the end. Not that it didn't keep her busy - there were 255 pieces to this little foam train and NO INSTRUCTIONS. The box simply said "refer to photo". The pieces weren't even labeled to let you know which train car they went to! It took me almost two hours but I finally conquered the train. Kate was happy.

 One night we decided to try to make a real gingerbread house at Yiayia's. She had found this cute tutorial in a magazine that was sort of a cheater version - there's actually a carved cake inside these graham cracker walls. We (meaning me and Bill) glued the graham crackers to the cake with icing on one evening, and then sat it out in the garage to harden overnight. Kate and I came over the next day and began the cereal roof.

 She helped me put the gum drops on and ate several as we went. She also kept stealing my shingles and eating them. I think the cereal was a great idea for a gingerbread house roof! It's very rustic looking.  We didn't have any cotton candy laying around so we used a cotton ball for the smoke in the chimney.

 During the ice storm, Kate and I baked salt dough ornaments since we were stuck in the house. We hadn't made any new ones since she was two so I thought it was time to add to her collection.  She chose the shapes and did a good job of punching them out of the dough too.

 We did another handprint for Kate. I have one from two years ago as well. Next time I make one of these I'll have to use a bigger circle cutter. She's growing too fast.

 We painted them a couple of days later, but I didn't get any pictures of the finished products. She selected a few to keep for herself and for us and handed out a few to other people too, including one for her teacher at pre-school, Mrs. Lisa.