December - Mommy's on the Naughty List (but Nick isn't far behind)

Nick had his very first trip to the school nurse's office thanks to the Rudolph noses given out to the class. He had it strapped on the side of his head (something like in this picture...), pulled it out and SLAM. Cracked himself in the head & got a nice goose egg! His older-woman-girlfriend, Elle, took him down to the nurse's office and apparently just about EVERYONE we know that works at or attends OTHS happened to walk by during triage because we got reports across the board "I think I saw Nick in the nurse's office today....?"

2010 we did cinnamon ornaments for the tree INSIDE the house. 2011 we're doing birdseed ornaments for the tree OUTSIDE the house!

What a sticky, goopy MESS! Needless, to say they loved it. And check out the muscle Nick is putting into it!
If you're going to tackle this project here are a few pointers:
1 - Check that you have molasses and honey before you start.
Yes I ran out of both (what are the odds of THAT?!) and I wouldn't even know where one would get corn syrup so I made a simple syrup which was a big FAIL.
2 - The larger the mold the better and the fewer the nooks and crannies the better.
Since we were making about 50 of them I had picked up a plastic tub of cookie cutters at Target. Of course about 80% of them were on the small side / intricately detailed sooooo FAIL. That left me with a select few oversized molds and muffin tins. The muffin tins were pretty awesome (albeit boring) - just remember to grease them first! And the mini-muffin tins were fine too - I strung 3 of them to make 1 ornament.
3 - Don't let the kids string them. Some were brittle (thank you simple syrup batch) and even the ones that weren't brittle posed quite a challenge to thread the twine through the jagged opening. In other words, do this while their napping & when they say "But WE wanted to do it!!" pull the ol' "I'm SO sorry.... I didn't realize! Next year, ok?"
The winning combination: A molasses/honey batch, a 3" cookie cutter with no nooks or crannies.
St. George's annual Christmas program. No pagent this year.... but they did delight the ears with a few holiday tunes that would make Andy Williams proud.

Oh!! There's Adrienne! And look at the little guy next to her - making those faces...! What a crack up!
It's just SOOO FUNNY when a little one is making a spectacle of themselves.... baaawwwhahahaha!
Awww, my little cherub!
Oh no. Nick.... please don't. PLEASE!
There may not have been any pagent but I bet they didn't expect a comedy routine. Being that he was FRONT AND CENTER the entire church watched him grimmace, scrunch and mug his way through the ENTIRE show. Oh wait. That's not entirely correct. He did take a momentary break to yell at the director, "WE ALREADY DID THAT ONE!" when she announced the next song. THEN it was back to the faces.
MOR-TI-FY-ING!!!!!
Nick got his andithero from Father Andrew without incident *phew* and Adrienne followed right behind him...
"Hi Daddy!"
What am I?? Chopped liver?!?!

The first gingerbread houses of the season.
(and I swear she has clothes with patterns OTHER than lime green & cream horizontal stripes....)

MMMmmmmm! Smells DELICIOUS!
I seeeeee you!
It was a smash & grab job.

Now that they were officially warmed up in the gingerbread department it was on to the big leagues:
Yiayia's First Annual Gingerbread House Bake-Off
I'm pretty sure I was pregnant with Adrienne, or maybe when she was just a wee lass, that Yiayia first announced her plans to her grandchild(ren) over to decorate gingerbread houses every Christmas. Fast forward 5 years and she got her wish!
They were all business.
Get your hands off my candy, woman!
Nick was PMS'ing. He was just having one of THOSE days.....
Oh lovely. That's the face he makes while he's plotting his next will-definitely-land-him-on-the-naughty-chair-move.
See what I mean.
While Nick was being banished to the den for fear of what he MIGHT do, Tori shared some QT with Uncle Arthur admiring his favorite past time... his pictures!
My sugar-indulgent child (look at those chubby cheeks!!) is pleased as punch with her confenctionary masterpiece (and even more delighted with the prospect of EATING it on New Year's day).
The 7 gingerbread architects and their construct
The Ginger Village
A few close-ups of their cavity-cottages. Adrienne's was the only one with a chimney & Yiayia added the 'smoke' - how neat is that?!?
She came up with this duck on a pond all by herself! Super cute...
Snowmen with suitcases (??)
Nick's candy cabana was a bit simpler - he invoked the less-is-more aproach to design.
Last year, with lights flashing and sirens blaring, the kids watched as Santa cruised down the street atop of a fire engine and went to..... our neighbor's house. Doh! That would be one of those precious Mother-of-the-Year moments....
Needless to say, I was on a mission to NOT have a repeat of those sad little faces peeking out the window wondering why Santa wasn't coming to visit THEM so as soon as I heard they were scheduling visits I was calling that hotline like a Hollywood stalker. I obsessed over my cell waiting for the call back and when the moment came it was glorious! We got everything set and the big day arrived.... We were in the 1-4 time slot. Based on Murphy's Law, if I put them down for an early nap Santa would be there right at 1. If I held off Santa would be there at 4. Well, 4 comes and goes. 4:30 comes and goes. I'm BESIDES myself at this point. I tried calling the hotline which is no longer taking calls because they got so many responses. Oh great. We got BUMPED and they don't even have the decency to let us know!! Thankfully we hadn't told the kids so there would be no disappointment there.... but IIII was crushed! And PISSED! Greg was trying to talk me off the ledge but I was too far gone. How dare they no-show!? That is so rude! I'm going there and getting our "donation" back!! Ranting, raving, being an all around biatch etc. for about an hour. Possibly (probably) longer. Then the house line rings a little after 5. The dispatcher is apologizing profusely but they are on the way... they got delayed because they had to go PUT OUT A FIRE!
And who would be THE BIGGEST a-hole on the planet, ummm, that would be ME.
Here I am, cursing the fire department up & down.... and they were out SAVING SOMEONE'S LIFE. Yes, I'm going straight to hell.
AND THEN... to make me feel like even MORE of a schlub, Santa doesn't just knock on the door, hand them their gifts & head off.... Oh no, no! He spotted the tree in the opposite end of the house, came on in, sat down, chatted with the kids - let them pepper him with question, let us take a trillion and one pictures.... he was definitely at the top of the Nice list this year....

Why the kids look so completely stone faced / borderline not happy in this picture is beyond me....
All the excitement and no nap was too much for this little elf....