Making the Gingerbread House

"But Solomon took thirteen years to build his own house; so he finished all his house."

1 Kings 7:1

A post or two ago, I said that we had built a gingerbread house. Well, Mommy and Daddy went out on a date, and we watched the little ones. We fixed and cleaned up dinner and then we built the gingerbread house! I (Kimber) decided that I was going to try and do the icing, but the stuff was so thick and would squeeze out the back end, getting me all sticky. So we resorted to...fingers! The best utensils for anything! :)

Hannah with her icing fingers.

(I soon became Lydia-watcher and photographer)

Decorating the gingerbread house



Applying some candy




Everybody get your fingers in there! :)

Hannah perfecting the icing

(And the icing did taste good so we did lick some of it off...after we finished decorating, of course!)

The finished product with the decorators.

This picture is blurry but most everybody is looking at the camera.

Voila! The gingerbread house!!!

We all ate a little bit off of it (most of us ate the candy!) but that stuff will definitely make you sick, so we decided to save the rest for Mom and Dad. ;) But, with our family being on the healthy side, Mamma didn't want us eating a lot of it, so the next morning we had 1 more thing off of it and then...it disappeared. (Accident....I think not!) :)

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Today we started up school again after our Christmas break. Everything's gone well so far. Mommy and Daddy made up a new schedule and so we have to get all the "kinks" worked out today, for them to address. I'll scan the schedule and post in on the blog for those of you who like to be scheduled. By being scheduled a lot of things get done a lot smoother and easier - especially when you live in a 10-person family! She's great at making schedules!

One of my favorite things about the new schedule is that I have 1 hour of sewing time. I'm going to see if I can make my own skirt by Christmas. I know that sounds like a lot of time, but I've never "read" a pattern for a skirt myself, so I have to figure lots out - plus learning how to sew as straight as possible would help too! ;)

Willingly Jesus',
Kimber

Christmas Eve Dinner

"Likewise He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you."

Luke 22:20

Here are the pictures of our Christmas Eve dinner!

The table

Alexis, Eden, Seth and Caleb waiting for dinner

Daddy, Paw-paw, Na-naw and Hannah at the table

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This has nothing to do about Christmas Eve, but I thought I would go ahead and tell you how our New Years went. Tuesday afternoon, the Lawhorns (Uncle Mike, Aunt Stacey, Kaitlyn and Sarah) came over to visit. We (most of the children) played Kemps, Speedminton and walked over to our many-animal-farm and talked. The adults stayed inside (much warmer there!) and, of course, talked. For an afternoon snack we had Pumpkin Bars that I (Kimber) and Mommy made. I made Cream Cheese icing to go along with it too! We got the recipe from a friend at church, Mrs. Nigro. They (the Lawhorns) left before dinner. Wednesday morning, as some of you may know, it was extremely windy. I love being outside, especially when it's windy. So, I went out on our hammock and let the wind rock the hammock. It was wonderful! And then I convinced Hannah and Eden to come out too. Daddy brought out a fuzzy blanket for us to cuddle up in and we rocked to and fro. I love watching an incoming gust of wind. The trees far in the distance start to bend first and then soon, all of the trees around you are bending. I involuntarily smiled because I just loved seeing the wind creep upon us all of a sudden and I loved watching the trees sway back and forth, while the chilling wind blew my hair! Anyways, that afternoon (after a very speedy lunch) we went to pick up Na-naw (grandma), Kaitlyn and Sarah from Best Buy and then we went to Na-naw's house. We played Apples to Apples and ate dinner and then our family and Na-naw and Paw-paw went to church for Pastor Rick's vision for 2009. I really enjoyed the service! Then we went back to Na-naw's house, played some more games, Sarah and I made Spritz cookies and decorated a few of them with Daddy and Mommy, got comfy in our jammies, watched the ball drop in New York and then went to bed. I woke up this morning around 9:45 but Hannah and Alexis were up much earlier. Breakfast was great - Paw-paw made another one of his awesome breakfasts! We relaxed a little bit, did our devotions and then watched Kung Fu Panda. Some family members and friends arrived for lunch. There was lots of yummy food out like Fritos, chips in general, Jello, cheese and crackers, lots of pies, a grand assortment of cookies, etc. Everything was great! We all got to talk to Mr. and Mrs. Hare, some friends from our old church; it was nice to see them. Lydia actually let Mrs. Hare hold her! (She normally wants Mommy, if she's in sight) We left their house after Lydia nursed and dropped off our Great-Grandma (we call her G.G) and then went home. We had a snack dinner of veggies, fruit, turkey, nuts, and hot cocoa!

Willingly Jesus',
Kimber