Holiday Fun

We've been enjoying the holiday season these last few days. We drove around looking at Christmas lights several nights ago and Clara absolutely loved it. She said over and over "Ook Mommy, too toos ights!" Or "Look Mommy, christmas lights", for those of you that don't speak two-anese. She squealed and laughed the whole time, pointing out babies (snowmen), bebe Deedees (baby Jesus), Santa and weedoe (reindeer). I'm loving this whole Christmas season with a little one.

We decorated gingerbread houses yesterday with Glenn, Becky and Leah. It was decided that gingerbread house kits should come with a coupon for a discount on a marriage counseling session, because you need one upon completion of your house. It was fun, but if you haven't done one, believe me when I say your house will not look like the one on the box. Not even close. And if you're enlisting the help of a toddler, it will look even less so like a picturesque little gingerbread house.

So, here are my tips for building a better gingerbread house.

1. Plan on it taking longer than you think. We didn't read the directions first and didn't know how long it took for the icing to set before decorating. You put two walls together and let set 30 minutes, then the other 2 walls, let set 30 minutes and then the roof, which sets an hour.

2. Have some icing that's on the thin side and some that's a little thicker. Ours was thin and didn't hold the walls together very well, but it spread nicely on the roof, unlike Glenn and Becky's thicker icing.

3. Use a smaller decorator's tip for the icing. The kit comes with one, but I think it was too big of an opening for what you're trying to do. A smaller one would have worked great to do windows and detail work.

4. Let the icing set for just a few minutes before adhering candy to the walls especially. You'll see what happens if you don't do this in the picture to follow.

5. Buy a little extra candy to make it more fun.

And here are the pictures. I'm embarrassed to say that I decorated the front, but I feel the need to share the picture with you so that you can build a better gingerbread house. If I can help just one person, then my humiliation will have not been in vain.

Here's my crew eating candy while the other building crew is hard at work. Clara ate soooo much candy that night.

And here's the new house. Unfortunately, it was hit by hurricane Kelsey.

After gingerbread building, we headed to a Christmas party at a friend's house in Houston. The fact that we had a party to attend was partly to blame for not taking the time to let our house icing set properly. We had an enjoyable evening with lots of friends.

Clara just moved up to the two year old class at chuch a couple of weeks ago. She now brings home little crafts that she's done and it's more of a class and not just babysitting. So, today when I pick her up, the teacher asks me if I can send a sippy cup to class with Clara. I look at all the kids at the table and only one of them has a cup. So I say, "Um, okay" and she could sense that I was confused as to why my kid needed a cup.

So she said that some of the kids bring them and when they start drinking from theirs, she wants one. I'm actually of the opinion that at this point, Clara doesn't need to have a drink with her at all times. I've stopped carrying one to restaurants even and I really don't want one in church services. I'm also of the opinion that my kid needs to learn that just because someone else is doing something doesn't mean she gets to. Life's not fair; deal with it. Now, if she were the only one without a cup, that's different and I would probably say "sure, of course."

My question is, am I being anal about this? Chris says I'm not, but I do realize that my noncompliance makes it harder for the teachers. This is the first time I've had to deal with a difference of opinion of someone whom I've put in the position of caregiver for her. Is it rude of me to tell her no, that Clara can just deal with it? Or would it be enough to tell her that I'll take her to get a drink before class so that she shouldn't be thirsty? I don't even mind them pulling me into class if she's being a toot about it. I'll take her home if she's going to pitch a fit about something.

Anyway, just thought I'd throw that out there. Hopefully she'll learn real soon that throwing a fit gets her nothing. Twice now we've been in the store and I was going to buy her a Christmas dvd. She had it in her hands and started whining and crying about something, so we walked back to the display, I yanked it out of her hand and put it back on the shelf. To be quite honest, it's empowering when I do something like that. It makes me feel great, like I'm being a good mom. That's not mean, is it? (Don't answer that, Grandma.)

Here she is at lunch today with a bad case of hat head. When she was sitting in my lap during chuch, I wasn't able to get the hair in the back to lay down and it kept getting in my face. I actually licked my fingers to smoothe it down. Never thought I'd do that.

And last, but certainly not least, please say a prayer for our little friend Jake. He's having heart surgery tomorrow for a heart defect that he was born with and will have to stay in the hospital for several days following the surgery. Here he is at the party last night having a good time with a couple of his girlfriends before the big day. (Hope you don't mind that I swiped your picture, Amy.) Aren't they sweet?