Merry Christmas One and All!

Our Annual Gingerbread House Decorating Party

My son Max is in the middle



My son Jake on the left and his best friend



My youngest son Nick in the red








Every year I host a party for all the kids friends and their families to come and celebrate the season with us by decorating a gingerbread house. It's a tradition I started when my daughter was about 4. I make the house and everyone brings a little something to put on the house. This year we had a big turnout with about 20 people!

You can find the recepie I use below on my last post.

Christmas 2008

Welcome! I've decided to participate in Boomama's Christmas Tour this year. It's so fun to see how everyone decorates. I'm only doing two trees this year, as I sprained my ankle last month and I am on orders to rest it. So it's just the family tree and the Harry Potter Tree. I am a huge fan. I am adding to this tree every year so it's a work in progress.

We wish you and your family a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!







My Harry Potter Tree is in the Master Bedroom






This is our family tree in the LR

Saturday is our annual Gingerbread House Decorating Party. I will post pics once it is over. Until then, here is the recepie I use

The Best Gingerbread
3 x recepie
1 ½ C. butter
7.5 C flour
1 1/2 C sugar
1 1/2 C molassas
3 egg
1 T baking soda
1 T cinnamon
1 T ginger
1 T cloves
1 T cinnamon

Cream butter and ½ the flour, then add sugar, molassas, egg, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, and cloves. Beat until fully combined. Stir in remaining flour. Divide dough in half. Divide into 6 pieces, roll in waxed paper and Chill 3 hrs. Roll out each section 1/8 in thick. Cut into cookies or pieces for house. Bake 375 5-6 min for cookies, or 16 min for larger pieces for gingerbread houses. If you are going to use for a gingerbread house, bake the pieces on aluminum foil, cool and then carefully flip over and peel off the aluminum foil. If you try to bake on a cookie sheet without the foil it will stick and break into pieces. This is a really tasty recepie for cookies as well.

Welcome to the world little one!

Today some good friends of mine welcomed their youngest son into the world. I watched their older son for them, as he is Nick's best friend. I took him to the hospital to meet his baby brother and it was so sweet to see his reaction.
Baby and mom are home already. I talked to a nurse there briefly and was pleased to hear that the hospital here accepts new grads into Labor and Delivery! Since that is where I want to work I am realy excited about that option :)