Christmastime--candy houses

 This year was a challenge.  Mom and Dad are trying very hard to meet their goals for loosing weight.  But, we liked our new tradition of making graham cracker houses and decorating them with candy.  What to do, what to do?

We decided to buy frosting dyes (not just our regular food coloring ones that we use for our cookie icing) and just a few candies and make most of our decorations from frosting.

House construction went well.  The buttercream frosting we used set up quickly as construction cement.  Coloring the frosting was a blast--the new colors are wonderfully vibrant!  And then the decorating began!

Chimneys and pathways were created.

Trees and team logos (not necessarily connected) came into being!

Much icing was used!






Here are some of the final creations:

This is a nativity scene by Alia.

This beautifully edged path way and home was made by Elena.






Tanner also has a nativity display with Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus just to the right of his tootsie roll pathway.
The kids (and grownups) enjoyed making and eating their creations.  We made them on Christmas Eve.  We ate them until after lunch on Christmas day.  Now all that is left is a pile of foil wrapped cardboard! 

Christmastime--Cookies

 One of our family traditions this time of year is to make cookies, ice and decorate them and deliver them to friends in the area.  We really like making these!

The process takes two or three days.  We make the dough and chill it.  Then we take turns with the cookie cutters and cut out the cookies and bake them.  And then, we decorate them!

(I just realized that I chose a photo of our last batch of cookies.  You might notice some of them are a bit strange...misplaced body parts, pieces from a star connected to a ginger-person's body...  Yeah.  The promise of getting to make mutant cookies kept everyone involved until the end this year!  The ones near the top of the photo are more normal!)

 The decorating is fun.  There are rules--things like no more than four red hots per cookie and no licking fingers--but it is a fun and creative project!  This year we had Grandma & Grandpa P. here to help too!

Did I mention we like cookies?