Christmas Tidbits

We tried making a gingerbread house from scratch this year and it turned out to be a bit of a bigger undertaking than I remember it being from when I made them as a child, but the kids loved it. We ran out of icing and ingredients to make more (I think I used too much trying to get it to stand up and stay!), so we didn't get to decorate it as much as the kids would have liked, but they were happy with it.

While we were making the cookie dough, Carson went downstairs to the garage to get a piece of cardboard for our base, and he decided to see what it would look like if he dumped a huge box of packaging peanuts all over floor of the garage! yikes....he didn't tell me about it when he came back upstairs, so imagine my surprise when I went down to get something else and saw this! He was a good sport about cleaning it up, although I admit, I was not happy to see this mess since the whole upstairs was chaos from our gingerbread making. Owell, it all cleaned up just fine.

Some snowflakes we made

Christmas Eve

Christmas Fun

We had a lot of fun trying to get a Christmas picture this year. We had to try it a couple different weekends to get one that would work. We went up to Mount Hermon Conference Center where it's really pretty and found a good spot with some pretty leaves in the background, and the kids were in great moods which helped. We had some fun playing along the way.

Mr. Carson Head

Carson came up with this fun game!

Glimpses

I didn't get a picture of this, but the other day I caught a glimpse forward of what Livi might be like in 10-12 more years. She LOVES to chew gum, and actually does pretty well with it, so the other day she had some bubble gum in her mouth, which is so cute to watch her chew, and she was sort of smacking it while she walked around with her purse on her arm and she was talking on her little cell phone...it cracked me up. And then a couple days ago she asked me to paint her little toenails and fingernails....so we did and she's so proud of it, and I have to say, it looks so cute on her. It's fun having a girl. :-)

On a totally different note, we rode our bikes to our favorite taqueria the other day, and as we were sitting outside waiting for our food, there was a guy at the table next to us waiting, too. He was a big, tough-looking guy, dressed in black with tats all up and down his arms, not too out of the ordinary, really, for around here, but he caught my attention because we were sitting close enough that I could hear him making a cell phone call to his "mama" and it truly brought tears to my eyes. He said, "Mama?! Hi! I just wanted to call to let you know that I'm really excited to see you tomorrow, and I also promise that I'll watch that whole movie with you. I love you so much, Mama, and I wanted to let you know that....so I'm looking forward to seeing you tomorrow, I'll talk more to you then! I love you!!...." Now, I have no idea what their relationship is like, but it was precious just to hear those words coming from him. It was a little reminder for me also to not pass judgment for things on the outside, you never know what things are really like in anyone's lives until you get to know them (or till you eavesdrop on their conversations!!!) :-)

We live in California...

We were at Borders recently looking at some children's books and Carson came across a Curious George book he wanted me to read to him. It was all about numbers and items in various places like playgrounds, homes, etc. One was about the different kinds of weather. There was a box for the different seasons and Carson was saying what all of them were. So there was "Sunny", "Windy", "Rainy", and then "Angely".....I guess it's a sure sign Carson's not too familiar with snow. :-)

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

Last weekend we went out to Johnson's Farm to get a Christmas tree and it was such a fun experience, I can tell why families make it a tradition. It started raining pretty hard when we got there, so we got out of the car and took shelter under the place where they netted the trees and then we went over to the little gift shop. This family farm is owned and operated by a gal who is in my Bible Study, along with her husband, Farmer Rob, and their sons. It's such a pretty place and there's a lot of history there.
Once the downpour ended, the sun broke out and it turned into a gorgeous day to be up there. We went out in the field to pick our tree and finally stumbled upon "Snowman". They name each of their trees and we decided that Snowman was a good fit for our family. :-)
After getting some hot cider and cookies, we took a tractor-led hayride around the farm and saw the horses and then up to the top of a hill where we each got to roll either a pumpkin or a circular cut of a tree down a really long steep hill to try to get it to roll thru an old tire. It was really fun, and the pumpkins really picked up some good speed going down. Out of all of us that did it (about 15 or so) Carson's came the closest, but none of us made it through. It was just such a fun and memorable experience, I think we might have to make it a tradition for our family, too.