I spent today - all of it - in my kitchen baking and cooking. All of my salads and appetizers are ready for our little appetizer/sandwich/salad party tomorrow night. I tried a new recipe this year - a cranberry pistachio goat cheese log - and I can't wait to try it! Okay, so I already did. And I'm sure I could eat the whole thing! If I had a signature dish, it would be my lasagna so that's for lunch on Sunday. It's already in the refrigerator. I didn't do near the amount of baking I usually do at Christmas time, but I did whip up a batch of my mom's pralines (PRAY-leens) for Seth. I really wanted to make some fudge - it's my absolute favorite! - but I somehow didn't have any condensed milk in my pantry. I was a little bummed, but it's okay. I'm the only one who eats fudge anyway, and I do not need to eat the whole batch. I'm also hoping my mom has some fudge waiting on me in a few days!
This guy right here . . . I can not believe he will be a teenager next summer! I'm thankful he still indulges his mother who wants him to decorate a gingerbread house!
Oh, and did I mention that my people let me listen to Christmas music ALL THE DAY LONG?! It was just wonderful!
Squeezing the icing bag is hard work. Her face says it all!
Case in point. Mason ate more icing than he put on his house. His fingers were constantly in his mouth.
And Mason isn't the only one! This girl would eat junk all day long if I let her! She's never had this much candy in front of her at one time, and she took full advantage of it! Case in point, there are very FEW decorations on her house!
Decorating gingerbread houses requires intense concentration.
And notice Ellie is biting the head off of her gingerbread man!
All of me is very tired. But all I have to do in the morning is make a cheesecake and the dough for our Christmas morning cinnamon rolls. And then I'll enjoy the rest of the holiday weekend just spending time with my people!
Since I spent the day in the kitchen, it seemed like the perfect time for the kids to assemble and decorate gingerbread houses. We started this little family tradition a few years ago, and it's something they still look forward to.
But here's the thing. They were always convinced that they couldn't eat the houses or the decorations. And I was always totally fine with that. As a matter of fact, I prefer it that way. I might've even been the one who gave them that idea to begin with. This year that all changed. They realized they could, in fact, eat the houses and the icing and the decorations. I'm pretty sure it's Seth's fault. He talked a lot last year about eating the gingerbread, and they remembered that. The houses are still in tact, but there are very few gingerbread men left. And I think more decorations went into their bellies than onto their houses.
Here are a few (or many) pictures of their gingerbread house fun.
So my favorite part of the whole thing is opening the boxes, laying out the pieces on baking sheets and organizing the decorations in ramekins! I'm not even lying.
Mason is definitely not my detail-oriented child. But I have to say that I think he was the one who put the most thought and the most work into the gingerbread house. His favorite part was working on the "sidewalk."
And here are the finished gingerbread houses.
