Gingerbread Houses

On Christmas Eve we held our first ever Gingerbread house making contest, and it was a blast.

We gathered at my parents' house, and my sisters Teri and Kristi,

and my new brother-in-law Eric were there. We used graham crackers for the construction of the houses, made royal icing and had bowls of varying candies for the decor. We divided into 4 teams: Team Newlywed (Teri & Eric), Team Kristi, Team Jerin, and Team Mimi & Jack. And can I just say? This was my 1st time ever, in my life, to construct a gingerbread house. Crafting is not my thing. But I honestly enjoyed it, perhaps it was the competition of the whole thing. Jon was the architect behind our build,

envisioning a pass-thru driveway and a chimney, while I filled in the details with the windows and a licorice driveway. Jack and Mimi won on the efficiency front. Their house was constructed in about half the time of everyone else's and no space was left untouched by Jack's watchful candy-decorating eye. Kristi had the most unique house, creating an open manger concept complete with a licorice bonfire. The newlyweds were perhaps the most ambitious with their build as they built their house 2-3 stories high with some opulent details. My mom joked that they overbuilt for their neighborhood, haha. When all was said and done, everyone's turned out great and so different! What a fun afternoon.

Can you pick out which house is whose??...

 

 [From left to right: Kristi, Jon/Erin, Mimi/Jack, Eric/Teri]

Santa's Village

We had a wonderful holiday season in 2013, and I've been remiss in posting our pictures and stories. To kick-off our Christmas celebrations, we had Sunday dinner at my parents' house, with my sister Kristi visiting from the East Coast. Amusing anecdote- Aunt Kristi was so excited to see her awesome nephews, and upon greeting Jason she asked, "do you know who I am?" His response? "Aunt Teri!" HA! Aunt Teri would be my other sister not present at the moment. It was the big joke for the week that Jason kept insisting on calling Kristi, Aunt Teri, though he did finally acquiesce that she was in fact Kristi.

After we had our fill of food, those of us brave enough to face the winter chill (re: everyone except my parents, haha), loaded up in the van and visited Santa's Village. Santa's Village is an annual tradition here where the city puts together a miniature village in the "North Pole" for children to walk through, participate in festivities, and meet Santa Claus. It sure was frigid that night with the wind, but I'm so glad we went and experienced it with the kids.

They got to meet Clifford-

 Jason may have been a little reluctant to let a giant red-sized dog put his paws on him. (And after re-reading the sentence I just wrote, I can understand why!)

 

I wish I had gotten a better photo of the enormous lit tree they had there, but my camera phone is temperamental on its best day. Suffice it to say, there was a great big tree, lit up with strands and strands of lights. Kristi and I chased Jack and Jason round and round that tree, while dutiful Jon waited in line to see Santa. The boys cannot get enough of being chased. It's the funnest, most exciting game to them, and they just light up the second they sense you coming. So after about 40 minutes of chasing, taking pictures by reindeer, listening to live music, and waiting...

 ...and a few more chase take-downs by Aunt Kristi of this little runner who didn't want to wait in line to see Santa...

  ...we saw the Big Man himself- Santa Claus!

 The boys look a little dazed by it all, don't they?

Now it's Conner's turn to be dazed. Or is that terror?