It's beginning to look a lot like...

CHRISTMAS!

Late Thanksgiving left me both chomping at the bit and a bit unprepared for Christmas season activities.  But, we plow headfirst into my favorite season, solidifying old traditions and trying out new activities.

The baby has her "First Christmas" PJs, courtesy of Great Aunt Mona and Great Uncle Joe (and I hear her cousin and 2nd cousin have matching pairs!)

To mark our first Christmas celebration in our new home, we got a real tree this year.  We have put our fake tree outside, but we'll talk more about why we would do that on another day.

Fancy dresses have come out and we "dress" for our tea parties (and have gingerbread men or other pretend Christmas confections, of course!)

The big girls are talking up Christmas at school.  This week they made ornaments, clove studded oranges and gingerbread men as well as reading the gingerbread man stories.  I thought it might be fun to make a gingerbread house at home, but I wanted something less expensive than a kit and sturdier (and less work) than baking the walls myself, so we constructed a "gingerbread" log cabin out of pretzel rods!

First, we used a serrated knife to cut the rods approximately to size and glued the structure together with a hot glue gun.  (Yes, I glued it.  You shouldn't eat the walls anyway, that kind of thing just gets you kidnapped by witches!)

Then, I piped some frosting in as "mortar" and to fill in gaps while Evelyn spread "snow" on the baking sheet we used as a base.

Then the girls went to town decorating with sprinkles and gum drops and pretzels and marshmallows

It was a great way to spend quiet time.  They even made little marshmallow snow men, a gum drop path and a pretzel fence!  They were so proud of their work and we will have it on display until Christmas, as long as they don't eat it.