Yesterday, I finished making 16 loaves of pumpkin chocolate chip bread. This time, Jocey got to help. She loves to help me cook, especially when she gets her own little side of chocolate chips to munch on while we are making stuff. I mean, who doesn't!
Then last night, we worked on a tradition that my family has had for as long as I can remember - decorating a gingerbread house. When I was a kid though, my parents would just use graham cracker squares and melted sugar for the glue. We would all get together at my Uncle Bruce's house in Logan (usually there were at least 4 of the families there out of my dad's 5 siblings, and my grandparents), have dinner, make the gingerbread houses, sing Christmas carols, and have Santa come! Then, my parents would drive us through the Logan cemetary to see if Santa's reindeer were around munching on the hay bails they put out each year for the deer up Logan Canyon.
After we moved away from the Wasatch Front and Cache Valley, we continued the tradition. After we would get done with gingerbread houses, we would act out the Nativity, drive around looking at Christmas lights on people's houses, and when we moved to Biloxi, Mississippi, we would also check out all the luminaries people would line their driveways with while listening to Mannheim Steamroller's Christmas album. (A luminary is a paper bag that may have a design cut out on it, filled with sand to keep it in place, and a candle is placed inside to make it glow. It's really pretty!) Then we'd come home and my parents would let us open one present on Christmas Eve, which was usually pajamas or sheets.
This year, we decorated it earlier than Christmas Eve, and we decided to use a handy kit from Sam's Club. It was fun to put it together as a family, and to watch Jocey experience something I did as a child her age. I can't believe Christmas is less than a week away! We have our presents ready (including the pajamas!), and Jocey's getting more and more anxious for Santa to come.
2 comments:
dude, i totally dig the kits. i really hate trying to glue those stupid graham crackers together. but, we still have to do the gingerbread houses! awesome tradition, huh?! i'll get my blog updated, promise. *sigh* gotta catch up on some "other stuff" first! wink wink!
I love the pictures of Jocey helping you cook!!! Isn't it fun to have a little munchkin by your side, supervising every move you make. I too find that a side cup of chocolate chips/raisins/ or anything else of the sort keeps all parties much happier! =)
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