'Tis the Season right!?! I feel like December is flying by and there are only 9 days until Christmas which is 8 days until Christmas Eve. AHHHH!!! How is that possible? I have a lot to accomplish before that deadline. Tommy's birthday is on the 21st and his party is on the 19th; the timeline is really making me reconsider celebrating his birthday on his 1/2 birthday. A nice June party seems fun! And I digress...we have been very busy over the past few weeks, but this past Sunday, we had some festive fun.
Sunday started with the Christmas Pageant at our church in Lake Oswego, Christ Church Episcopal Parish. I have to say, I absolutely adore our church!!! Everyone there is so welcoming and I am thankful to be a part of such a community. Morgan was an angel and Tommy was a King. Morgan was the "opening act" as the kindergarten and under age groups sing the welcoming songs. They were very cute and did a great job! Tommy had a speaking role and nailed it. He spoke very clearly and with good inflection. I am thankful for the wonderful women who ran the pageant - Susie, Cynthia and Deborah!
Here are some pics of the kids:
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| Morgan as an Angel. |
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| Tommy (as a King) & Morgan (as an Angel) |
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| Even the King was wearing Nike shoes |
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| Father Jeremy talking to the kids before the procession into church |
Then from the Christmas pageant we headed home and prepared for our annual Gingerbread House assembly. I baked the gingerbread house pieces last week - usually I do that on Thanksgiving weekend (it is good to have them dry out a bit for assembly), but other commitments got in the way of that this year. But it all worked out okay.
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| Baking the houses. With the extra dough, I made little gingerbread girls and boys. |
This is a tradition that comes from Mike's mom, Jan Olinger. Even as a child I remember seeing Mike's kitchen table filled with candy and gingerbread houses in various forms of completion...I always thought that was so much fun...and it is!!! The house pieces are all made from a blue print and recipes that Jan gave me when I asked about Gingerbread Houses when Tommy was a baby. I figured it might be time to start to get the tradition started with our family.
Jan came over directly after the Christmas Pageant and she made the cement icing while I cleaned up the rest of my house that was in chaos. Then we started to set out the candy. Our longtime friends the Mitchells come over every year and make these houses with us. They have been doing it since Tommy, Ari & Mckenna were little...maybe 4 or 5 years old. The nice thing is as they get older, the more freedom we can give them with the icing and they can really decorate the houses mostly on their own.
They start with three walls up and decorate the inside of their house. Then we put the front and roof on with the icing. The outside of the house and "yard" are where they are super creative. Each child has such a different way of decorating. This year Tommy was more captivated he has been in previous years (usually his attention span is not very long when it comes to crafts/creative items). I will let the pictures speak for themselves, but I think all in all they had a fun night of decorating!
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| The whole crew working on their houses |
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| Grandma Jan helping Tommy assemble his house |
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| Even Grandpa Casey was getting in on the action |
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| Mckenna hard at work on her house and Tommy escaping the decorating fun |
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| This was the candy that we could not fit on the table. Riggins' bed held it up nicely! |
And the finished products looked like this:
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| Morgan's House |
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| Tommy's House |
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| Both houses with their lights on |
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| Another view with both houses with their lights on |
So all in all it was a great weekend filled with fun and festive traditions.
Cheers to Christmas traditions!
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