NOT a tradition

I have seen several people who's blogs I stalk, post pictures of their very cute gingerbread houses that their families have done. This has never been a tradition in my family, and I may have found out why today. Growing up with parents who are both artists, I have found a vast number of people who assume that talent was passed on to all their children. Sadly it was not, at least not to me. I am going to print out these photos and carry them in my wallet as prof.

Now this was a kit, and I'm pretty sure that is supposed to make it easier. Now granted the decorating was done by a 3 and 4 yr old, but the icing was done by an adult (you know who you are) and I'm a little worried.


Notice the trees that had to be used as braces to keep the roof from sliding off.

Now the kids had a lot of fun, which was the point, and the end result made it so that we didn't feel bad at all about eating the house. But I look at these pictures and it reminds me of going to the Christmas Chorus concerts when I was a kid. The concert is held in the chapel at the state mental hospital and when I was a kid there was a tree that had decorations made by the patients. I just remember always seeing candy cane reindeer that had 3 antlers and 5 eyes, things like that. Not that I'm saying my family is mentally handicapped, (although that is debatable), but I think we need some refining on our gingerbread house skills.

Here is an example of what gingerbread kits can actually look like. (I stole your picture Wade, hope you don't mind, it was for a good cause)

Christmas Unwrapped

Christmas has come and gone once again. I think this Christmas was probably a pretty typical toddler Christmas. Sheer elation along with complete meltdowns. I think my family got their first glimpse at just how loud Will can scream.

For Christmas Eve we had our traditional Craig family Swedish dinner. The party was at my grandpa's house, and I first have to say how much I love this wallpaper in the bathroom. I'm normally not a fan of any wallpaper, but I'm not sure if you can get more awesome than this.

There were lots of cousins for the kids to play with and the food was great as always. I had the assignment to attempt the rice pudding. After some suggestions from Britta, I think it turned out pretty good. Even if it was a little past it's prime by the time we got around to dessert. Maiken's water was salted by Katy, but I'm not sure if she drank any after the attack, so it may have gone unnoticed. Hey, if the prank is still going even though we are 30 yr olds, I don't see it stopping anytime soon. I attempted to get some pictures of the kids in front of the tree, it was an ordeal.


This was the result of me asking them to stand next to each other. Fine, then we will try them apart.

Christmas morning opening of presents. I took some videos of Will opening his presents, but I guess I had my camera turned sideways the whole time. So I need to figure out how to fix that. Will's big presents were a fire truck (thanks to special Santa who looks a lot like my boss), a fireman dress up and a food/cooking set. I was most excited about the fireman dress up because Will has been playing fireman a lot and using a rubber snake as his firehose. I specifically looked for a set with a fire hose and thought it would be a hit. I didn't think that he would throw a tantrum and shut himself in the bathroom because you can't put real water in the fire hose. A snake, that's fine to pretend with, but none of these fake hoses.

The highlight of the morning was being able to talk to Britta, Tom and Ella on video phone. Ella was very excited to be on the camera and it made it a little easier to not have them here. The present unwrapping ended with another meltdown from Will. What do you mean there aren't anymore presents? And how dare Lucia want to touch my presents!

Oven pancakes for breakfast and then home for a much needed break and nap. Back to mom and dad's for dinner. Stayed up late watching Wall-E. Decided I didn't want to brave the blizzard so we stayed over for one more night. This time I got to sleep in Alex's king size bed. Very comfy, and it's amazing that even though Will was sleeping in his usual horizontal position, I had more than 2 ft to spread out in.

Overall a good Christmas. I'm glad Keeley, Will and Alex were all able to come up, but still wished the whole fam could have been there. I missed seeing the Van Wagner clan, Will and I will have to come in the next week to see everyone. Hope everyone had a good Christmas, on to the next adventure.

Encouraging Words

Just now as I'm getting Will dressed for our Christmas Eve Party.

Will: Mommy, I think you have something on your eye
Me: Yeah, it's makeup
Will: No, I think your eye has an owie

Guess it's a good thing, or an obvious thing that I don't "dress up" that often.

Sad Day

My Pampered Chef cookie sheet just slid out of the drainer and shattered on the floor. I know in the realm of things it's just a possession and a thing, but man I'm bummed. Anyone who owns anything from Pampered Chef will understand when I say that my pan was black. It was well seasoned from years of use and was the best cookie sheet I have ever used. Even if I get a new one, which I will, it will take years to get it to that perfect state. Without hesitation I can say that it was my favorite cooking item I own, and I own a few. Stupid drainer. I was washing it so that I could use it to make some Armenian bread for our Christmas Eve party. I guess I will have to settle for just a plain old metal cookie sheet now...

Video Star

The other day Will and I were sitting on the couch and Will said he wanted to tell me stories. Of course they never repeat it as well when you bother to get out the camera. But here is Will telling me a story about his lost cars. I can't get over how he says "lost" right now, his pronunciation of "helicopter" is pretty cute too. (I swear I was holding the camera perfectly still)





Here is Will singing Hush Little Baby to me. I think he only remembers one line, and it's the one line he has always been most interested in.