This is just going to be a random post of the memorable moments of Christmastime this year.
The Gingerbread House
Each year, the kids love to decorate gingerbread house, and I’ve always just bought the kit which has you assemble the house with the pre-packaged icing and then decorate with the candy that’s included. It’s interesting how they’re making these kits easier and easier in recent years. The last couple of years, the base that’s included (they didn’t used to include a base) even has groves to stick the walls in so it’s less likely to fall over. I noticed last year, you could just buy a kit with the house all ready assembled - just decorate with candy and you’re done. I was craving a little bit more of a challenge this year so I decided to tackle a homemade one. I was a little uneasy because I’ve heard stories of how difficult and messy they are and how they are these long, drawn-out affairs. But I don’t mind the mess (things get messy when kids help out in the kitchen) and I usually cook from scratch, so the length of time didn’t bother me either. Mainly, I wasn’t sure if I would be able to bake something that would hold together. I imagined the whole thing collapsing in a heap of gingerbread, assorted candy, and royal icing.
But I was pretty sure I’d be able to find a lot of good tips on the Internet, which I did. I ended up using a recipe from the Food Network’s website. They even included a 5-minute video clip of the chef putting together the batter and baking the gingerbread, which helped.
It ended up turning out really well, and with Mick’s help, is even structurally sound. :-) Now that we’ve done it, I think we’ll probably go the homemade route from now on -- as long as we can squeeze in the time! The only problem is, it looks so nice, the kids haven’t wanted to start eating it yet! :-)
For fun, we decided to create a movie of the photos that were taken of the process.
The Dollhouse
I don’t know why it took us so many years to buy a dollhouse for the girls, but we finally got one this year. It looked a little intimidating when Mick first took it out of the box, but it came together very well. The instructions were easy to understand and all the pieces were included. I think it took Mick about 2 hours total.
We wrapped the furniture sets also and stacked them beside the house. We have the nursery, the master bedroom, the dining room and the bathroom. Still need to get the kitchen and living room sets to be complete. They have had hours of fun with this so far and have already made some blankets for the beds.:-)
<cough, cough, cough>
It can’t all be Norman Rockwell, right? Much of December found at least one of us dealing with a strange virus that caused a mild sore throat, followed by a persistent cough and fever. Grant, Brooke and Rachel had it the worst the weekend before Christmas. In fact, on Christmas Eve and early into the morning on Christmas Day we spent a fair amount of time with Grant, who could not stop coughing, poor guy. I had spent hours on Saturday wrapping gifts. I got down to 7 or 8 gifts to go, but they were big gifts, and I decided to finish up later. Fast forward to Christmas Eve (Monday) and I still hadn’t gotten around to finishing up those gifts. We were going to do that right after we laid the kids down, but that was about the time Grant woke up. Plus, Trent had slept in the car during our caroling and the trip up to church for our Christmas Eve service (probably 1.5 hours total) and he was not at all tired at bedtime! Once we finally got both boys settled back down and in bed (nearly midnight) we sat down to wait a few minutes to make sure Trent was asleep. He still sleeps in our walk-in closet, which is where the dollhouse was, and all the other gifts were in our bathroom, so we didn’t want to risk rousing him back up. But, of course, we ended up falling right to sleep and not waking up until Grant started crying again at about 4:30. We gave him some medicine and Mick laid down on the couch with him in the piano room while I finished up the wrapping. Thankfully, Courtney and Erica were the first ones up at 8:00 (right around the time I was finished getting the gifts, stockings and the breakfast table ready and about to get myself ready). Even though they were excited, they stayed relatively quiet, reading and talking until closer to 9:00, when the others started waking up.
And here it is, December 29, and we’re still dealing with this virus! Now Claire is the one coughing and having an on again/off again fever.
No pictures for this particular topic. I could go take a picture of the thermometer and the Ibuprofen, but that probably wouldn’t be very interesting. ;-)
The “Blizzard” of 2012
After a month of mild temperatures and lots of rain, we were delighted to get several inches of snow 4 days before Christmas! It stayed just cold enough to stay on the ground, so we decided it was a white Christmas, even though a fair amount of it had melted by Christmas Day. By Christmas Eve, the weather people were all forecasting a blizzard for central Indiana to hit Christmas night around 8:00 pm. To be on the safe side, we took pjs with us to Mom and Dad’s, mostly hoping we wouldn’t get stranded there, especially with our band of coughers, but there was that little part of us that thought it would be kind of exciting. ;-) The forecast changed several times throughout the day, and we kept one eye on the radar, just in case it hit sooner than they were predicting. It ended up not really starting in earnest until the early morning hours of December 26th. We had over 35 mph winds and about 5-6 inches of snow in Lebanon, which for us means humongous drifts!
(and we just got another 2-4 inches of fresh, powdery snow last night! Yay!)
Lots of music
One of the things that I love about Christmastime is the music. Not just listening to those songs that we wait 11 months to hear, but also the performing and caroling. This year, for our Lessons & Carols service at church, we teamed up with the Orr ladies to perform two songs: “While By My Sheep” and “Were You There?”. “While By My Sheep” was, admittedly, ambitious for our young “choir”, but the girls all did very well, and the 4-part harmony blended nicely. Unfortunately, we didn’t get it taped. We are used to Mom and Dad going to the service and helping out with the little ones, but of course they weren’t able to make it because Mom is still recovering from their accident. It didn’t hit me until right before we went up to sing that Mick wouldn’t be able to do it, since he was holding Grant and Trent, so it didn’t get taped. Thankfully, we thought of Glenn and got the camcorder over to him before we sang the second song. “Were You There?” by Natalie Sleeth is a song the Griffin family performed for many years at Christmastime. I’m not sure why I hadn’t thought of teaching it to our kids; I think I just forgot about it! They all loved the song, and our pastor asked us to perform it again for the Christmas Eve service. I had so much déjà vu while singing that song: seeing the smiling faces of our congregation and singing the words – I remembered so clearly singing it with Mom and Dad and the girls and Chuck all those years. :-)
Rachel, Courtney and Erica sang “Still, Still, Still” on Christmas Eve – a beautiful Christmas carol. It was a little challenging for Rachel, whose voice was lower than normal due to the cold (she probably would’ve been more comfortable singing bass than tenor. ;-), but they sounded very good. I haven’t uploaded video of that song yet, but here is a picture of them at Mom and Dad’s on Christmas Eve, getting ready to practice.
Also, for the second year in a row, our congregation sang the “Hallelujah Chorus” on the Sunday before Christmas. The pianist who accompanied last year couldn’t be at the service this year, so Rachel volunteered to learn the accompaniment. After struggling through just the first page (very difficult accompaniment!), while preparing for a piano recital, finishing up schoolwork and doing the regular Sunday playing, Rachel started worrying it would be too difficult. She decided to try to write out just the SATB parts and play it like a hymn. She made some progress with that route, but it was pretty painstaking. So, she talked with one of the other church pianists, who recommended some free software to do that task for her. She ended up getting it written in one evening and it came together pretty well after that. Here’s a little of the work on transcribing it, followed by a little practice.
The Vest
How cute is this vest?! I know, it’s not a very good picture, but the only one of him straight on. He was moving around quite a bit when I took this. Here’s another picture of him, talking to Santa. ;-)
Mick raised an eyebrow when I first put it on him, but I reasoned that it would be the only time he could wear it: it screams “Christmas” and it’s size 24 months. No way he’ll be able to wear it next year, plus he might protest by then. ;-) I thought it was soooo cute!
Trent’s First Official Haircut
On December 22, just in time for all the Christmas Eve and Day pictures, we trekked down to Cookie Cutters in the snow to get the boys’ hair cut. Trent’s was starting to flip up at the ends, plus someone (Claire) did this to him a few days before:
So, it was time.
Rachel was doing her best to prepare him while Grant got his hair cut.
But, it was still a tricky business …
All trimmed and happy now. :-)
Family
So thankful most of all for our amazing family, from my parents, to the in-laws, to all the nieces and nephews … we know we are blessed beyond measure. Getting together always reminds us of that fact.
