The Cutest Gingerbread House in the Whole Wide World!!!

Or at least the cutest one I've ever made! Mom & I tried one once when I was a teenager. As I recall, it was a disaster. This one was from scratch (got the pattern and instructions from Country Woman magazine) and when I read through the directions I thought, "Surely we can do that!" Although I must confess I really expected to be disappointed--these things are tough and I knew it. But in the end, I think I like mine BETTER than the one in the magazine! Whoa!!! When does THAT ever happen?! I wanted "shingles" on the roof instead of frosted mini-wheats and I LOVE the red and green candies all around the roof edge--it's bright and cheery. :-) Anyway, here it is!



And a close up so you can see the white sprinkles "snow" on the front of the house. James took this picture, that's why it's... like this!



The front...



And the whole thing in all its glory! :-)

I added the "snow" melting off the roof at the very end. I think I like it, but I don't think I like it in the picture! Ha! But on the whole, I love the house and I'm so proud of us!!! Sam & Katie helped with the shingles and the candies. It was FUN!!!

I finally posted pictures and way too much text (big surprise) about our Christmas with Mom & Dad, so scroll down if you're interested. :-)

The Christmas Festivities!

Or what I can remember of them, anyway.

I think it was about noon on Thursday when Mom & Dad showed up and crawled into the box for the kids to unwrap. :-) After all that excitement I really don't know what we did with the rest of the day. I know what we were supposed to do, but didn't. It's been a tradition of ours to bake gingerbread men and decorate them on Christmas Eve, but I thought for a change we'd make a gingerbread house this year instead. It was a good plan... Ha! I made the gingerbread, we cut it out, my artistic mother etched the most crooked bricks I've ever seen in my life on it (who would've known?!), we baked it up... and all of the pieces are STILL sitting in a bag in the kitchen! We never did get it put together!!! My new goal is to construct it sometime before New Years Day. We'll see.

Although I was brought up that it is a sin to open presents before Christmas morning (!), our kids all buy gifts for each other from the dollar store and we let them open them on Christmas Eve. Sam is really into nutcrackers--thinks they're terrific--so Joe got him a little unpainted one.

Joe got a little stamp set for Katie. -- Such thoughtful gifts and they were well loved and appreciated! Mom & Dad looked like this most of the time. Cameras at the ready...
It was HILARIOUS watching Joe try to play with the paddle ball one of the others had gotten him. He hit himself in the head several times. Ha!

I know we watched a movie that night, though James was greatly distraught because it wasn't a Christmas movie. (We usually watch It's a Wonderful Life on Christmas Eve.)


I can't remember why, but I think I was up until nearly 1:00 that night. As I was getting ready for bed, Joe was just waking up! He had been asleep for a few hours, but woke up and just couldn't go back to sleep. I always sleep on the couch on Christmas Eve with all of the Christmas lights on (been doing it since I was a teenager--I love it!), so I decided to let Joe sleep on the floor in there with me. I drug Sam out of bed and put him on the floor in there, too, just because. They'll probably want to do this every year now! Ha!

The rule was that nobody was allowed up before 6:00 Christmas morning. I think it was 6:00 on the dot when the crowd started gathering! We waited on Mom for a while, naturally. ;-) We had a good family prayer, thanking God for all of his blessings and what Christmas is really all about, then praying for those families that are enduring such heartache and bearing such heavy burdens right now.

It was finally time to dig into the stockings! Joe was thrilled with the first few finds: a new hat and some new arrows for his bow.

Sam has been dying to try freeze dried ice cream like the astronauts eat. Now we know. Astronauts deserve our sympathy!!! Ha!
Joe decided to open his two littlest presents first. They turned out to be a guitar tuner and picks--which he was thrilled with. I keep telling him the size of the package doesn't mean anything. :-)
Grandma Vicki is all about handmade gifts. She made new pj's for the boys and a new nightgown for Katie--and and a matching one for this doll that she also got. Katie named her Esther and LOVES her. I keep meaning to take a picture of the two of them in the matching nightgowns, but haven't done it yet.
She also got some Bendaroos, which seem to be a popular gift this year! Ha! They are SO fun.
This was Joe's reaction when he peeked in the big bag and saw that he'd also received a new guitar for Christmas!
Though you wouldn't know it by this picture, he was sooooooooo excited.
These are the sweatshirts Mom got/made for James. I think he's worn one of them every day since Christmas!
Check out THIS one! Ha!
A robot from Grandma Wanda...
Dad with his stack of little gifts: candy, more candy, and a new set of pj's.
And Mama with part of her gift--a new Lanny Wolfe CD. Of his old songs, that is--nothing newly recorded.
We really had way too many presents this year. Last year was SO NICE, everybody getting just a few things that they really, really loved. But the gifts under the tree just seemed to keep piling up over the past few weeks! (Not my fault and not my folks fault, that's all I can say! Ha!) Some of Katie's other favorite gifts were some of those bead things that you put on a mold and melt together (that doesn't make any sense--I'll have to take a picture! Ha!), some sculpting clay, a stuffed poodle in lieu of a real one, some piano lesson books, and a bright pink suitcase--which has been used to tote all of her loot all over the house ever since. Joe got a new suit outfit, some night vision spy gear... Hhmmm. Other stuff, I'm sure! Sam got a bow and arrows of his own, a remote controlled truck, a mold-n-paint set, some wooden stuff to paint and--his favorite thing of all--a new set of Legos. Of course, they all got pj's and shoes from Grandma Wanda, too. I love those practical gifts! James' loot was all clothes this year, I think--pj pants, shoes, jeans, and a suit. James bought me a new red coat, some slippers (my feet are warm for the first time in weeks!), and a set of the three cutest mixing bowls in the whole wide world. My Mom got me the annual puzzle, a denim skirt, and a Greater Vision CD and DVD. As always, the stocking suffers were my favorites. I got some great socks this year! :-) And I FINALLY--after about 8 years--got the egg thingie my Mom has been promising me! I'm sure it has a different name, but I don't know what it is. It's this crazy little contraption you put in the water when you're boiling eggs and it tells you when they're done. I never know when they're done, so this is GREAT! And she also got me a pair of black leggings... with a 4" band of white fur around the ankles! HA! She declares she thought they were knee socks and the fur would be at the top, not down at my feet where everybody would see it. I told her I LOVE them. I'm going to wear them everywhere and tell everybody through a pseudo smile, "My mother got me these..." Ha!

After we were all done opening presents Mom and I got busy in the kitchen making breakfast, then starting on Christmas dinner. While that was going on, Sam got busy painting his little wooden canoe.

My Mom had bought these inflatable boxing gloves for the boys. They are the worst gift ever in the whole wide world. If they actually use them, something is GOING to get broken. And where in the world are they supposed to put the things away?! I'm hoping they'll all be punctured by the end of this week. I may see to it personally. ;-) Anyway, it only seemed right that Mom help blow them up.
We had a delicious dinner--everything turned out perfect. The ham was the best I've had in a long, long time and the turkey was nice and juicy and pretty, too. Mom's homemade cranberry sauce was fantastic--I'm never going back to the can now! Can't remember what all we had, I just know that for days and days I ate way, way, way too much!

It must be nice to be a guy. While the women are slaving over a hot stove for a couple of hours, then when they're standing over the sink and cleaning it all up afterwards, THIS is what the men do.

Even Joe! But then, Joe hadn't been feeling the greatest. He never did come down SICK, was just tired and groggy and had a runny nose.
In the end, Mom and I were able to get naps, too. Mom's wasn't very long, but I slept for nearly two hours, I think!

Here's Dad and a tube. He's ALWAYS had a thing for tubes. I remember him playing with them all throughout my life--just loves 'em. Especially if there's a dog to talk to and bark at through them, but even the kids are fun.

This is the only other picture I have. Dad and the kids watching old cartoons on YouTube. I think it was El Kabong or something like that. They were enjoying it, whatever it was!
We sat down on Christmas night and watching It's a Wonderful Life, making James very happy. During the movie Katie was fooling around with Sam's new bow and managed to mess it up somehow. Something went crazy with the tension and it was really loose. So after the kids went to bed--at 10:30, I think--Dad and I spent the next HOUR and a HALF (yes, until midnight!) working on it! Him non-stop, and me intermittently. And for the first hour we were wrestling around with it, trying not to break any fingers or anything while flexing the bow so we'd have room to work with the string. THEN we discovered that we could pop the end off and do it without the wrestling match! Ha! I kept telling Dad to just let it go--we could take it to a sporting goods store and have them show us how to fix it. But there's no giving up with Dad. He was reminding me a lot of HIS Dad, the way he would study the bow and turn it over and study the other end, then hold it back and study it some more--you could just see all of the gears turning in his head--and he eventually did figure it out. The execution was a little elusive (!), but we eventually did get it back the way it was supposed to be. And it was quite rewarding, I must say!

After that--GET THIS!!!--my Dad... MY DAD!!!... stayed up talking until nearly 2:00am!!! WHOA!!! That doesn't happen. The talking OR the staying up late. He prefers to be in bed by 9:00 or 10:00, but on a rare occasion he MIGHT last until 11:00. We had both had long naps in the late afternoon and just weren't tired, so we just kept on talking. I can't remember what all about now, but it was so nice to be able to spend some time with just Dad. :-)

Saturday did NOT go the way I had planned. It was decided early in the day that the whole crowd was going to Albuquerque!!!!! Can you believe the insanity of that?! I don't go to town. I especially don't go to town in the evenings or on Saturdays. And I REALLY especially don't go to town on Saturday, the day after Christmas--that's just NUTS! But everybody else was going and it's not like I'm going to stay home alone. ~sigh~ ;-) We went to Hobby Lobby, but I don't think we found anything we couldn't live without. No great sales this year--not yet anyway. When Dad had had just about all he could take of that place (not his kind of store, I assure you!), we headed to Guitar Center to buy new strings for Joe's guitar. Afterwards we grabbed lunch at Jack in the Box, where our family can eat for under $10. Gotta love that. Then we spent a considerable about of time at the indoor flea market and had a great time. THAT is Dad's kind of place. :-)

We came home and Dad and I looked online and found some instructions on the proper way to restring a guitar, so between the two of us we were able to get Joe fixed up, tuned up, and strummin' away. Don't remember much else about that day, except that we watched The Incredibles before bed, then Mom and I stayed up playing games. I won. :-)

Sunday we had a really good service--our pastor preaches such great messages! I was so blessed. We went to Pizza Hut for lunch (with the kids' Book It! coupons, of course) and had the very best pizza I've had in years. YUM!!! Came home and had time for a nap before heading back to town for BTI service. Afterwards we stayed and visited with the Clarksons for quite a while before heading home and putting the kids to bed. James, Mom and I played I Buy (James REALLY won--it was ridiculous!), the Mom & I stayed up and played another game. I won. :-) She couldn't bear to be outdone by Dad, so we stayed up until nearly 2:00am that night.

Yesterday morning we got up and said goodbye to Mom & Dad and they headed back east again. They'll be going to the funeral in Arkansas tomorrow. I'm so glad they'll be able to be there, though it shortened their time here. There is a family suffering so greatly right now and I'm thankful Mom & Dad will be able to be there to support them with their love and prayers.

I had devotions with the kids and tried to go back to bed afterwards (I'd only had about 4 hours sleep), but just couldn't pull it off. We had a pretty sluggish day around here, but managed to get in a full day of school and get all of the laundry done--and I even stayed up and finished the ironing while watching my new Greater Vision DVD (thanks, Mom!) last night.

Today (I started writing this last night, but was too tired to finish) we got the house pretty well cleaned up and put back into order and had another good school day. That means that the only two days my kids got "off" for Christmas break this year were Christmas Eve and Christmas Day! Ha! They have NO IDEA that other kids get two or three weeks off. DON'T TELL 'EM! My kids get time off all throughout the year with the traveling we do, so it all evens out. :-)

The big accomplishent today was finally putting the gingerbread house together!!! It was so fun and it turned out SO CUTE! I'll get those pictures and make a separate post in a minute. It deserves its own. ;-) But before we end this one...

My Dad always threatens to tickle Mom "right down to the floor" when she gets mouthy or fiesty with him, but it's been years since I've actually seen him do it. But we got lucky last week! Ha! Love it. Makes me so happy and makes me feel like a kid again, watching Mom and Dad "fight," except he recruited help this time. (I never got involved when I was a kid! Ha!) I think it all started because she called him a creep or something of that nature. Doesn't matter. I got the good part on film. ;-)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

I'm soooooooo tired and don't have it in me to truly blog, but for those out there who might not yet know what was in that giant box...

Here is Katie's reaction when we asked if they'd like to open the big box today instead of waiting until tomorrow.


Rippin' it up!
Hhmmm... now how to get into it???

Pocket knives, of course!

Oh, wait--it's light. Just lift it!

It's a Box-o-Grandparents!!!!!!

Oh, happy day!

What could be better than THAT?!

Shock, laughter, tears... it was GREAT.

We managed to keep it a secret somehow and it was so, so, so great. It was sort of a last minute thing. After it was determined about a week and a half ago that we wouldn't be able to go back east for Christmas Mom & Dad started trying to figure out if it would be possible for them to come out west instead. And it worked out! God is so good!!! :-)

Some super sweet lady at a furniture store found the box for us (she sounded so excited about our plan--almost giddy! Ha!) and we wrapped it up and had it sitting in the house for a few days. When Mom & Dad arrived today we made sure the kids were occupied elsewhere so we could sneak them into the box, then call the kids out and tell them it was time to open it up. :-) How fun is that!!! They were pretty confused for a while though, wondering how Grandma and Granddad had stayed in that box all this time... Ha! We finally explained it to them. Anyway, it was great fun to have a GIANT box wrapped up like a present and to unwrap the Grandparents and to see the shock turn into excitement and then utter glee when the kids started registering all of it. What great memories. We are all just so, so, so, so, so happy to have Mom & Dad with us for Christmas!!! Life is just so very, very grand. I'm sure I'll blog lots more about it... but probably not while they're here. You know how I am. I already told Mom that tomorrow night we're not touching the computers--we're playing games!

MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYBODY!!!

Here we go!

Time to play catch-up with the blog. I've been a very bad blogger of late, so I'll make up for it with a PLETHORA of pictures. That always works. :-)

I last blogged on Tuesday of last week... Don't remember Wednesday. Don't remember Thursday. Don't remember Friday. But on one of those nights we went into town to check out the River of Lights. We were pretty impressed! It was fun, but a mite chilly. Which makes it all the more fun, of course. :-)

This first picture is of a giant snowman village that was VERY cool. And the picture actually turned out okay through the glass!

This was one of the coolest, I thought. Old trucks are neat anyway, but especially neat lit up.
They had TONS of displays. Since it was located at the botanical gardens, they had a whole bunch of flowery things.




Joe thought the scorpion was COOL.



This isn't from the River of Lights, of course, but... better, Mom & Em???
Okay, although Wednesday, Thursday and Friday are lost forever, I do remember Saturday! It was the day we got the house all cleaned up, packed some clothes, and drove to Alamogordo--stopping at that soda fountain James loves in Carrizozo, of course. We were going to make a church visit there last month, but it didn't work out. This was sort of a spur of the moment trip and when we got there we stumbled into a really, really bad situation and wondered if we were supposed to be there at all! But in the end, we could see how God really worked things out and orchestrated this trip at the exact time (down to the minute, perhaps) that it was needed. We had a really, really good service on Sunday full of prayer and bearing one another's burdens and worshiping and praising God and praying some more. It was exactly what was needed and you could feel the Lord really meeting the needs. He is so good and so faithful and always right on time. We are always so blessed when we go to Alamogordo--the people there are simply AMAZING and so very faithful. I am just sooooooooooooo thankful for The Church of God! I'm always amazed at the kinship we feel with one another and the privilege of truly feeling each other's joys and sorrows, rejoicing in the good times and bearing the burdens in the bad times. Anyway, it was GREAT to be there and we left feeling so convinced that God had planned this trip for us.

We had a nice time of fellowship and enjoyed some pizza with the folks after service, then headed over to Hatch to join them for their Christmas service.

We passed this SO COOL dog on the way there. I just love him!!! Any dog who can practically fill up the back of a truck is just plain cool. :-)

We got to Hatch and stopped by the Soto's house/business to see if we could pick up some salsa. We had run out a few weeks ago and the turkey tacos just aren't the same without them. :-) Anyway, Tayde was gracious enough to sell us some salsa AND invite us to stay until church time. How nice!

The service was GREAT. We sang a few songs, then Tayde took over had the kids come up and recite some verses and sing some songs. So cute!

After that, they put on their Christmas play. It was soooooooooo great!!!!! Unfortunately it was in Spanish and both of our interpreters were IN the play and couldn't help us out. Ha! It really didn't matter--we thoroughly enjoyed it. It was so cute and we got the basic gist of it ("don't forget the TRUE meaning of Christmas")--and I thought the costumes were FANTASTIC!
Jesus was an angel... one who was a wee bit disheveled!
Look at these costumes!!! Abbie (that's right, isn't it?!) was a GREAT sheep--and Adrian was a terrific lion. I was struggling to figure out why there was a lion in the nativity scene, but somebody explained that there were supposed to be two sheep... one of them mysteriously disappeared and the lion was "taking its place." Ha!

Things really perked up when Tayde showed up and pulled her gun on everybody! I really should have had her explain more of it to me afterwards--I still don't "get" that part! Nonetheless, it was funny! And she looked terrific, didn't she?! Ha! I love it! David was a great king, too. :-)
And Belen was one of the very best Santa's I have EVER seen!!! SO FUN! :-)
We made it home on Monday. Don't remember anything else about Monday.

Don't remember Tuesday. Wait... that was just yesterday, right? Surely I can remember something. Hhmmm... Laundry. School. Hmm. Oh, well!

We did get a few packages in the mail this week. Wa-a-a-a-a-a-ay too many presents from Pennsylvania, I assure you. We also got this from the VanDeventers...

Isn't that pretty??? It's so VanDeventer-ish. :-) These boxes were filled with all manner of tasty chocolates from Harry & David. YUM!

Don't know when this was taken, but Sam decided to make some glasses for himself so he could look like his Dad...

Last night we loaded up and headed into town. I had suggested tuna casserole for dinner and within minutes James said, "Hey... how 'bout we go check out the Bugg Lights tonight--it's probably going to be our only chance.......... and we could grab some dinner while we're there." All inspired by the idea of tuna casserole, no doubt. Ha! Anyway, the Bugg Lights are a tradition that's been going on for over 30 years. Apparently an old couple by the name of Bugg (how sad!) really got into decorating their yard for Christmas. They did it for all those years, but finally got too old to be able to do it. So a nearby school volunteered to take it over and now they set it up there at the school.

Sam has a real thing for nutcrackers, so he was thrilled to find this one!
There were a whole bunch of lighted displays--what the Bugg Lights is really all about. It's kind of a pity though. If you saw all this stuff in somebody's yard you would think, "WOW! This is so amazing!" But since it's set up at a school for everybody to walk through it somehow doesn't seem as impressive or something! Anyway, here's a California Raisin riding his board... ironing board, that is. Ha!
ONLY in New Mexico would you find Santa with a flock of aliens.


Oh, I forgot to mention! After the Christmas service in Hatch they had a big Christmas dinner over at the Banueloses restaurant. It was so, so, so good but I ate so, so, so much! The green tamales were HOT, but so very good. We had a great time fellowshipping, then before we left they gave each of the kids (and there were a BUNCH of kids there) a present! I guess they've been having dinners to raise money to buy all the gifts with. Anyway, all three of our kids loved their presents. Joe got a set of army guys and weapons--little miniatures. Sam got a train that looked pretty cheap and lame... but once you put batteries in it it makes a TON of noise and lights up and chug-a-lugs across the room until it runs into something, then redirects itself and keeps going. Sam LOVES it, of course. And Katie got this set of phones that has a really, really long cord connecting them--and you can actually talk through them! All three kids think it's fantastic. Here's a picture Sam in the dining room next to the stereo (Katie was in her closet with the other phone), singing along to the Christmas music for Kate.
After devotions and school this morning the day was spent almost entirely in the kitchen. Here is this year's crop of Christmas cookies...

Here are some of Katie's...
The "Noel, Leon" is sort of a family thing... from one of our "favorite" songs. Ha!
And one of Joe's... This was part of a train and he decided to put a wreath on it. I was pretty impressed!
And, of course, Sam's. Sam gets a little sprinkle happy!!!
Along with dinner tonight (baco's... another family thing!) I also made a peach crisp, a pumpkin roll, and clam chowder for our traditional Christmas Eve dinner tomorrow--soup is always better the second day, you know. :-) We had devotions and put the kids to bed in the living room tonight. We always try to let them sleep in the room with the tree and all the lights one night, so tonight is the night! Sam fell asleep during devotions again (?!), but Katie and Joe were awake with big eyes for a long, long time!
They're all goners now though. James and I went to the den and put on a Christmas movie--and I was able to get all of the ironing done. Wa-Hoo! So much accomplished today! A few more things that must be done in the morning, and then the fun really begins! I will be posting more pictures tomorrow night... and they'll be GREAT ones! :-)