After the all-day cook-a-thon, the feast with friends
And the 7 loads of dishes
we Christmased the Christmas out of the weekend, and it was 98% enjoyable.
Even when they insisted on a “snowfall” made entirely of little bits of cut paper, which landed all over the freshly cleaned floors.
We needed a little Christmas, so we made hot cocoa, which we all know is just a vehicle for mounds of tiny marshmallows.
We put up the trees, and we busted out the train.
And this happened…
Because Scott, after all, is directly related to Buddy The Elf.
Our favorite new tradition is to head to the Gaylord Texan and make a gingerbread house. They have this fancy (expensive) Ice Show there that we went to when I was pregnant with Lowell. It was… a nightmare with kids, in my opinion.
BUT the decor there is so pretty, and there is a little shop with lots of tables where you can buy a gingerbread house (or family or snowman), and they give you all the stuff to make a giant mess… I mean, to decorate with. It’s much cheaper to do this as a family than to get everyone bundled up in coats, stand in long lines, and look at ice sculptures.
The face I make when I just frosted the cookie perfectly but the 4 year old wants to do it her way.
The face the toddler makes when he can’t understand why we aren’t allowed to eat the candy.
You can also take pictures with this nightmare if you dare.
Leyna was having none of this because she knows how these movies end.
Sarcasm aside, it’s really fun. We like it. There are trains.
And kind strangers will take pictures for you and get the tree in the background perfectly in focus.
If you time it just right, you won’t get attitude until you’re walking out the doors.
(We found Sunday at 11 am to be the perfect time to visit since everyone was checking out for the weekend.)
So here’s to the month of December and to doing my best to remember that messes will be made, and things won’t be perfect. There will be crying, and toy cars stuck in my beautiful tree.
There is beauty and love to be found in all of that.