'Tis the season

I love this time of year! We've been busy with all kinds of fun activities and parties.

First up was Huck's 4th birthday. We gathered at the Nelsons' to play pin the scarf on the snowman, button, button, who's got the button and Christmas bingo (Macy sure loved the M&M candies that we used for bingo markers, and then she was fascinated when her tongue turned blue from eating them.) Then we had soup and cupcakes in a cone. We finished the night off watching Huck open his presents - a Toy Story extravaganza! Sadly, I didn't get any good pictures of the birthday boy.

Kennedy was invited to an art party for her friend Mae Mae's 4th birthday. The kids painted plates at a ceramics studio, but I guess that doesn't hold their attention long at this age. She reported having a wonderful time.

I got to go out to lunch with my friends from book group. For our gift exchange, Kennedy helped me make Christmas themed paper dolls. We did snowmen, elves, santas and trees. I think they turned out really cute, and Kennedy did a great job coloring and adding the details.

The extended Nelson family gathered for a Christmas party that included assembling hygiene kits for the homeless shelter - but with a fun twist. We split into teams and did tasks to earn the items, like: musical chairs to get the toothpaste, toothbrush relay races, pushing bars of soap with our noses (how did I end up doing this one, when I knew going into it what the task was?), filling small bottles with shampoo, etc. Then we sang some carols to end the night. This was our year to plan everything, and I think it was a successful party!

We also celebrated Tim's birthday with a great dinner at the Weilers'. Jeff is home from his first quarter away at college, and he survived the experience. Tim is an avid reader of all things historical, and added some nice books to his collection.

Last night we hosted a gingerbread decorating party with Kennedy's friends, Lucy and Mae Mae and their families. I made the pieces for the houses on Monday using a recipe for "construction grade gingerbread" and then for the party we whipped up the "glue" frosting, baked some pizzas and got to work. This was my first attempt at making a gingerbread house, and I'll definitely do it again. Next year maybe I'll try a more complicated pattern. After dinner, the girls had fun playing together in Kennedy's room - I gather that they were pretending Macy's crib was a castle, and they were all princesses in there together. Lucy's little brother, Wilkes, loved the play kitchen, even though the older girls really wanted him out. Macy was climbing all over everything, and fell down a few times, so she mostly wanted to be carried around. Caitrin, Mae Mae's little sister, explored the basket of books and snacked from the candy decoration bowls. It was great to spend some time getting to know Coleman and Shelby and Christiaan and Amanda better. The gingerbread houses all turned out really well, and we had a wonderful night! The only downside to having a party like this is the mess... and after I had taken the day off to spend all day cleaning. It was all worth it though!