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I know some families have already removed all traces of Christmas from their homes, but we've been keeping the Christmas festivities going strong here! We have almost finished our annual day after Christmas puzzle, which Chris cleverly found hiding in the basement (right where I left it, I'm sure) just in the nick of time. We drove out to a nearby Catholic shrine with a big lights display that a reader told me about and it was so cute--they even had food and a building full of international nativity sets. The shrine is dedicated to Our Lady of La Salette whom I had never heard of before but fear not--I bought a book all about the apparition from their bookstore so I will be fully versed soon. Or at least sometime in the next fifty years as I slowly but surely make my way through my to-be-read pile(s).
And speaking of books, we had our annual book day which was great and involves almost no prep since I mostly just stash books for the kids in a big box in my closet as I find them throughout the year at thrift shops, estate sales, and the like and then lay them out the night before. There was a lot of cozy reading going on in all the corners of the house today. I found a Magic Eye book that I remembered from my own elementary school days for David and it has been confirmed that I still cannot see the pictures. Unlike Chris who can see them all.....allegedly.
This year we also made gingerbread houses from scratch for the first time. I found instructions online with printable patterns and it was really not any more difficult than rolling sugar cookies. And as a bonus, the gingerbread is actually something you want to eat as opposed to whatever it is that comes in the kits I bought at Michael's in past years. I know this from the delight in Christopher's eyes as he nibbled off the head of John's gingerbread man that he stole when John looked away for ten seconds. Or maybe it was just the sparkle of a little boy who loves mischief. Or perhaps it was both love of mischief and delicious homemade gingerbread. Professional tip: go to an actual candy store to get your supplies. The kinds with bins of candy. That way you can get just what you need and won't have giant bags of leftovers from the full sized bags at the grocery store. Also they've got mini versions of most things which work better on the mini houses. Unless you want to make your kids each of a full sized gingerbread house, which I do not recommend. That's a lot of work. Full sized houses can be had when said children are old enough to bake their own :)
I just love making gingerbread houses, it's one thing everyone here loves and participates in with almost no complaining. Christmas miracles never cease.
We've also still got Christmas cards trickling in--mostly the ones that got sent to the wrong address and had to be forwarded. Sending and receiving Christmas cards is pretty much my favorite part of this whole season. It's always stressful writing them all out but I'm always so glad I did. I love to read all the updates and catch up with all of our friends and see how big everyone's children are getting. The past two years I've said to myself that I seriously need to make a second card wreath and then each year I convince myself that this might be the year when we don't get any cards at all and how sad would it be to have two empty wreaths? How presumptuous to assume we'd need a second? Note to self: next year is the year. I will finally make the second card wreath so we can actually see all of the cards, not just the top layer, and stop breaking clips off trying to stuff too many cards in one. It's definitely going to happen.
Merry It's Still Christmas! There's still lots of Christmas fun to be had!