The holiday season rush always feels hectic with only a month between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Gemma kicked off the season by having her digital baby for Child Development class home for the weekend. Baby "Esmerelda" need to be fed, changed, burped and consoled upon crying. She did a LOT of crying. Even Santa had to pitch in and help.
We were not at all sad when the weekend was over and she went back to school. The only think that consoled Mama Gemma was a big tin of home made chex mix.
Our second annual tradition of decorating gingerbread houses with the Parker sisters.
They always want to make it a competition. Lily and Ellie vs Gemma and Avery. For some reason they did themes. Lily and Ellie did the TV show "House" and added some other characters.
Gemma and Avery did the movie "Wicked" which lent to the green roof.
We made Alex judge and he hates that job. It is pretty awful to anger 50% of the crowd. Gemma and Avery won, the second year in the row.
We added some new friends to the family this year. We got an artificial Christmas tree and adopted a Highland cow, Hamish. Once it was announced that Costco would no longer be selling fresh trees we bit the bullet and bought a fake one. It was a great deal at Target and it is 8ft tall! You can change the lights from white to color and twinkle or solid.
Rosie came back again to join us for some festive fun. She is getting older and mostly just moves around every couple of days. She doesn't get into much mischief and can't quite keep up like she did in her younger years.
Lily had her Orchestra concert. It is always our favorite because they play holiday tunes and the kids can wear festive headbands.
Lily had a few small trumpet solos as first chair so she got to be recognized.
Because we weren't home together for Thanksgiving I ended up making a do-over holiday meal on one weekend. We got a brined half turkey, made mash and stuffing and green bean casserole. You have to do gravy and fresh cranberry sauce. Everyone loved it. Best bonus was we didn't feel pressure to make a big Christmas day roast since we had it just recently.
Hamish was supposed to be an outdoor holiday decoration but we loved him so much we couldn't bear to kick him outside.
It is not the Christmas season without baking cookies. Gemma loves to bake so we made sugar cookie cut outs.
Then the real fun happens with icing and sprinkles.
They may not be masterpieces but they were fun and they really taste good too.
Right after break began Gemma, Josie and Sarah from color guard wanted to attend a one day clinic that their coach Cesar and his team "Icon" were hosting as a fundraiser. It was so so far away in South Orange County but we made the drive. While the girls were at the clinic I found a local cafe and got a holiday drink! An iced gingerbread latte. It was amazing! Then went for a lovely long walk at a park.
They choreographed a long holiday theme performance and posted it on their social media. It was really cute.
The local Peterson Fam had our holiday gathering at Goppy's Belmont Bistro. We brought Buca de beppo for dinner and then played some games. We got Christmas crackers that all contained a whistle. You play your whistle to the holiday tunes. We were not very good and it was hilarious.
Rosie managed to get into one bit of mischief after all! Collapsing roofs!
