Gingerbread Houses

During Christmas break, we ventured up to Asheville to check out the National Gingerbread Contest at the Grove Park Inn. I had only ever seen the Grove Park Inn on the commercials, and trust me when I say it's more elaborate in person. The inn itself was pretty amazing, and then you add in the scenery, the enormous fireplace, and the gingerbread houses...and wow! It made for a pretty fun day.

The gingerbread houses were divided into different categories - youth, teen, and adult. All of them were really impressive and took way more patience to make than I could ever possibly even fathom. I did find myself wondering though just how good one of these fancy schmancy houses would taste?

And here are two tuckered out tourists.

I highly recommend a visit to the Grove Park Inn for the Gingerbread houses for anyone looking for something different to do around the holidays next year!

Christmas 2009

They say that Christmas is so much better once you have kids. The part they forget to mention is that Christmas is so much better once you have kids that know what's going on. Don't get me wrong, last Christmas with 6 month old baby Isaac was great, but he really didn't unwrap any presents or get super excited over the fact that the Santa brought him gifts. He just kind of looked at us like we were nuts. This year though...this year was what they were talking about...this year's Christmas was so much fun!! But it still wasn't the presents that got Isaac all excited....it was the Christmas lights on people's houses, the ornaments on the tree in the living room, and the blow up penguin from Oma and Opa that grew into 2 penguins thanks to Aunt Rhonda and Aunt Cindy!!

We got into a daily routine this December. Pick Isaac up from school, drive home and admire every set of lights in the yards along the way (it's a 30 minute drive home, so there were plenty to see)..."mama look!! lights!!" became his favorite saying. Then once we got home it was straight into the living room..."mama, penguin, uh-oh" (that means please plug in the little blow up penguin that took up residence behind the couch). Then it was "mama/daddy - lights!!" (translated to please turn on the Christmas tree). He would then drag the chair from his little table through the kitchen into the living room and push it right up to the side of the tree so he could stand on the chair to see the ornaments that were a little higher. I swear that he would have stood there all night if we had let him. He loved his decorations!!

He did rack up in the present category though too, and he was much more active in the unwrapping phase this year. Here are some pics of some of the many things that he got for Christmas this year.

We had a wonderful Christmas surrounded by so many of our friends and family. And yes, they are right...Christmas really is so much more fun when you have kids!

Santa!!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!! This weekend we spent some time in Fayetteville with Nana and Grandpa (Brian's Parents). A trip to Fayetteville during the Christmas season just wouldn't be complete without a trip to see Santa at Cross Creek Mall. We got there just in time for Santa's break on Saturday afternoon (at least according to the lovely little Christmas elf that mommy wanted to have fired for her not so christmasy attitude problem), so we made the trip back out to the mall on Sunday after church. Even though the line was long, it was well worth the wait to see Isaac enjoy sitting on Santa's lap.

Here is a copy of last year's picture with Santa. I will say Cross Creek Mall does Santa up right...this year was the same Santa as last year. But just look how much Isaac has grown in a year. My little toothless wonder now walks and talks!! It's amazing how much he's grown since last Christmas.

Christmas Traditions

Growing up, my family had a number of Christmas traditions that just simply happened every year. To name a few...Fondue on Christmas Eve, the 11pm candlelight service at church, Christmas breakfast at Neenie's, chicken cordon bleu for dinner on Christmas, and of course Christmas cookies! Today it was time to share the Christmas cookie tradition with Isaac. My mom's family is german, and the absolute best Christmas cookie on earth (at least in my eyes) is a german cookie called Lebkuchen (which is best described as a molasses cookie). The fun of making Lebkuchen (at least as a kid) is the absolute and total mess you get to make of the kitchen. First off, you have to roll out all the sticky cookie dough with tons of flour so it won't stick to the counter and cut out all the different shapes with the cookie cutters. Then you bake them and let them cool. Finally, you get to the artistic part where you put the homemade frosting and your choice of sprinkles on. This is the part that Isaac got to help with...the artistic part! He jumped right in like he'd been doing it for years. He'd finish one cookie, and push it to the side to make room for the next one.

After he decorated the first few, he needed a cookie snack. But it was back to decorating and maybe sampling the sprinkles here and there.

We won't blame anyone for not wanting to try our lebkuchen this year!

Christmas Miracles

Saturday during nap time, two miracles occurred:

1) The Christmas Tree went up without incident. No problems with the lights, no broken ornaments, no hitches. Never EVER happens!!

2) The Wolfpack beat the Tarheels in football. For us Wolfpack fans, that completely erased a totally depressing season. Who needs a bowl game as long as you beat Carolina!

When Isaac woke up he was so excited to see the Christmas tree! He walked around to all of the ornaments identifying each one. He saw the superman ornaments which he identifies with some string of babble that i can't even begin to spell to describe it. He found a basketball goal, pronounced "bekabekaball". But the funniest was the shiny red and silver balls. He sees his reflection in these so he calls each one "Isaac". It is hilarious! Here he is exploring his new tree.

He has also become very attached very quickly to his newest hat. He loves his Santa hat!

Here he is kissing one of "Santa's Wooden Reindeer" straight from Opa's farm in the city!

Finally, here he is hanging the new moose ornament that my Aunt Karen sent to us this week. He's like a little elf of my very own...always there to help. We are so excited about Christmas this year!

Picture Time

It's that time of year again. The time when we figure out exactly what pictures we need to take for the Christmas cards. This year we got smart and did them outside where you don't need a flash on the camera. On my camera, when you don't use a flash, you can take about 4 pictures per second while holding down the button. This comes in handy for the group of photogenically challenged people that we seem to have in our family! You'd think that the children would be the problem right...getting them to look at the camera or smile or whatever. But nope, that's not usually the problem...it's the adults. With Oma and Opa, it's trying to get Opa to stop talking and making faces at the kids, or trying to get him to quit critiquing Oma's pose. Hate to tell you Opa, but you're the problem with the picture!!! With myself and Brian, it's trying to get us both to smile in the same picture instead of making a face like someone smelled a big old turd or like we're high on drugs or something. Then there's Aunta and Uncle Mark, "Mr. and Mrs. We're Perfect in Every Picture"...makes me crazy!! Kind of makes me smile knowing that Madeline doesn't usually like to smile for the camera!! :) All I have to say is thank goodness for digital cameras because we'd pay a fortune in film trying to get a decent picture for these Christmas cards!!

Here are a couple pics of the little ones on picture day.

Miss Madeline: "That's enough posing Aunt Rachel! No more paparazzi!"

Isaac: "You know I charge by the hour right?"

Here is Isaac and his Uncle Mark (who he calls "Gark") having a heart to heart after the photo shoot. Isaac sure does love his Gark!