Bits and Pieces of Our (Last) Days (of 2014)

It's been quiet here on the blog because I've been on vacation in every way.  (Well, for awhile I was sick, but then it morphed into vacation.) Recent goings-on:

We made gingerbread houses again. Because, surprisingly, that's just what we do. 

A blurry Ramona with houses, mid-assembly. 

The final products: 

 It's our sixth year of making them (thanks, Magical Mrs. M.!) and I finally created a gingerbread house label for the blog. No TARDIS or 221-B this year -- Ramona went candy-laden old school, Betsy did the Psych office (that's the Blueberry parked out front) and Anne did the retirement home of Sherlock Holmes (the yellow jellybeans next to the house are bees and hives): 

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I finally got around to Instagram. As much as I love Instagram and Facebook (certain aspects of it...there's the whole love/hate thing), Twitter, et al, I know that sometimes I post things in those places and then neglect my blog. But the blog is the only place I connect with some of you, so today I'm playing catch-up (I'm looking at you, Tanita.)

From Instagram: 

The snowmen (ornaments) Ramona and I made. 

Ramona's version of the Festivus pole.

Sketching, from Big Hero 6, courtesy of Ramona. 

And, just because I like to look at them: Madeleines. 

From Facebook: 

From Twitter: 

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Well, that's about all that my vacation brain can handle today. 

All too soon, it will be back to work and real life. Atticus said last night, "See, here's the problem with my vacations -- I'm so happy to get to be with my family all the time, and then, bam, it's back to work." I love that man. 

Happy Eighth Day of Christmas! 

A Gingerbread Tardis and 221-B (Gingerbread) Baker Street

Ah, the evolution of the gingerbread house in the Edmisten house.

It went something like this:

When Anne-with-an-e and Betsy were little girls, Santa always left gingerbread house kits under the tree for them. We built and decorated the houses sometime during the Twelve Days of Christmas. With kits come great advantages for someone like me (someone who has had to grow into the role of craftiness ... I still don't embrace it naturally, but I usually end up happy that we did whatever we did.) Kits have all the pieces you need, and they are already baked. Kits have royal icing mix, and kits come with candy, ready to be slapped on a roof. Kits are convenient.

Kits were The-Only-Way-to-Go for several years, but then a few years back, a friend suggested that we try making gingerbread houses together, from scratch. I was terrified, but I tried it (and I think I coined a new phrase in the process -- Gingerbread Back.) But a new gingerbread era was ushered in, and we haven't looked back. (Though I sometimes gaze longingly at the kits in the store....)

One thing, however, has changed in the last few years. When Anne-with-an-e and Betsy were but wee little girls, a charming gingerbread cottage was all one needed. Ramona's still fine with a charming cottage (her house this year was decorated as a candy store), but Betsy had a Tardis in mind, and Anne-with-an-e (BBC-Sherlock fan extraordinaire) was thinking 221B Baker Street.

First there was the graham cracker prototype:

Then came the first stages of the homemade houses: 

And, the finished products....

The Tardis: 

221B Baker Street (Sherlock's scarf and John's sweater made appearances, and -- though you can't see him very well from this angle -- Moriarty is peeking around the corner from the back of the building): 

And Ramona's Candy Store (she threatened to request Hogwarts, but in the end, she really, really wanted a candy store):

Thus we close the book on this year's gingerbread chapter. The End. Until next year. 

Bits and Pieces of Our Days: The Epiphany Edition

As our Christmas break comes to a close, I'm thinking about the lovely bits and pieces that came together to make it a great couple of weeks:

* Our break was relaxing. We used to do some traveling over the Christmas break. Our families are spread out all over the country -- most live far, far away, by land, sea or air. (Ok, not really by sea. Just land and air. But the point is that we're spread out.) Until about ten years ago, we sometimes had some family come to stay with us, or we went somewhere, but as situations changed or ice storms altered plans, our Christmases evolved into, "We stay home, indulge in nuclear family traditions, and see extended family at other times of the year." This may be the best family/holiday decision we ever made.

* Staying up late, sleeping in, reading books, cooking, baking, hanging out and talking. Relaxing.

* That said, we did get to see a couple of Atticus's sisters (he comes from a family of 12 children, and no, they weren't Catholic) and their families a few days after Christmas, and that was a lot of fun.

* We finally got together with friends for that gingerbread house party. The results were sweet:

* Atticus, Anne-with-an-e, Betsy, and I went to see Les Miserables. My quick review: I loved it. I can forgive some of the less-than-Broadway quality voices in exchange for the intimacy of the film experience of the show, which added a different and beautiful dimension which I fully appreciated. Beautifully done. Small objections here and there (did you really need to change a lyric in the epilogue ... leaving out "Your mother gave her life for you...." I was waiting to hear that one!) but overall, highly recommended for fans of the stage show. Bring loads of tissues. I had puffy eyes and a headache afterward. 

* Atticus and I got out for a date and went to see Lincoln. Oh. my. Daniel Day Lewis was incredible. Such an affecting, human, gorgeous portrayal of Abraham Lincoln. Powerful movie. I'm not a huge Sally Field fan, but at least she didn't ruin anything for me. Atticus and I both thought the final shot should have been the one in which Lincoln walks away, heading out for a night at the theater. We know what happens after that; not really necessary. Recommend, recommend, recommend. 

* Girl Time.  Fun to get out shopping with my teens for boots and purses while Ramona had a playdate, and fun to spend time with Ramona on one of her surprisingly favorite things (surprising because my nails haven't seen polish in years.) I did the "Cute Polish Designs - Water Marble" technique that she'd been wanting to try. It took a long time, and didn't turn out quite like the video, but the final result was pretty and she was happy. Good enough! 

There's more, of course, but I'm out of time! Will be blogging more soon, now that Christmas break is over....

On the Second Sunday of Advent My Daughters Said to Me...

Anne-with-an-e: Hmmm?

Me: I said it's time to get up.

Anne: What?

Me: Time to get up. Get ready for Mass. Are you awake?

Anne: No.

Me: Are you awake enough to get up and eat?

Anne: No.

Me: What should I do about that?

Anne: Leave me alone.

~~~~~

Anne is not a morning person. Happy Second Sunday of Advent.

(Anne is, however, a good sport, and I'm sure she won't mind that I'm exploiting her night owl nature for the sake of a blog post.)

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In other Advent news, the gingerbread house extravaganza had to be postponed due to illness at the home of the hostess. We hope to return to our regularly scheduled gingerbread griping soon.

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St. Nicholas visited our house on the eve of his feast day. He left chocolate galore, and really cute socks, and a new Christmas ornament for everyone. Ramona's ornament was somehow broken during the night. I apologized profusely for St. Nicholas's clumsiness. I really have no idea how it could have happened, because you'd think he'd be pretty steady on his feet, with those big, black boots and all, not to mention being the kind of person who is mindful of breakables. But it turned out that St. Nick wasn't the only clumsy one. The next day I was showing Atticus the tiny broken part of Ramona's ornament and I dropped the ornament on the wood floor. Now it has a big, gaping broken part.

I promised Ramona that I'd replace her new ornament. I'm thinking something in a nice plastic or fabric?

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Books I still adore reading at this time of year:

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever 
The Twenty-Four Days Before Christmas 
The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey
Hanna's Christmas 

Oh, who am I kidding? All of them.

~~~~~

Feast days coming up this week:

Our Lady of Guadalupe and St. Lucia. 

The bread! The bread! You can do it.

I'm not much of a photographer but every year I sigh at this picture of our bread.

I Should Have an Entire Category Devoted to Gingerbread Houses. But Do I? No.

(I'll take care of that later.)

Ever since we started doing this in 2009, when my friend Johnna and I thought it would be fun (fun! We thought it would be fun!) to make homemade gingerbread for the houses, I have posted about this change in our lifestyle. Because homemade gingerbread houses aren't just an annual trial, holiday project, they are a way of being.

Yes, this has been an evolution:

2009 introduced me to an aching gingerbread back. But the results were worth it.

2010 saw me procrastinating and cursing promising myself to plan a bit better in the future.

2011 saw me getting it all figured out. Cookie cutters -- check. Parchment paper -- check. Gingerbread recipe that we all love -- check. Making only two houses because Ramona said she'd do a graham cracker one instead -- check. Wait, strike that. She did say she'd do a graham cracker one, but then asked so sweetly if she could also have a full-sized gingerbread house. So that was the year Ramona decorated her Ditto house in graham cracker (Thank you, Sarah, who lives in the real Ditto House!) and also made a gingerbread church.

This year, it's all coming together -- the scheduling, the recipe, the tools, the timing. Here's where we are:

Make enough dough for houses for everyone: Check.

Make enough dough for all accoutrements (i.e., gingerbread men, reindeer, candy canes, etc.) Put a note on said accoutrements, forbidding their consumption until after construction day: Check.

Take ibuprofen for back: Check.

Promise readers to share the final results and promise readers and children everywhere that I will keep last year's promise not to complain: Pretty-much-check.

Stay tuned.

Ramona's Gingerbread Version of the Ditto House

Yesterday, Ramona decorated a graham cracker duo. She came up with this design:

If you haven't seen her inspiration for it, it was this:

See this link for original photo

Thought I was gonna die. 

Despite all my grousing, we of course had a fun afternoon with our homeschooling friends, and the result was this beautiful gingerbread-and-graham-cracker-village: 

Photo thanks to Johnna, because I forgot my camera again. 

Next year: no complaining. I promise. When my kids say, "Building gingerbread houses is great!" I'll just say, "Ditto." 

Did I Really Say, "I Can't Find My Candy Cane Cookie Cutter!"?

I did.

There was a time in my life when, had you even hinted I'd one day own a candy cane cookie cutter, I would have snapped, "Is your brain made of candy canes? This is me."

But me is a mom, and moms metamorphose into all manner of things they pledged they'd never be. Like bakers of gingerbread for homemade houses.

Two years ago, I made homemade gingerbread houses for the first time ever in my entirely long life. (I think I have Magical Mrs. M. to thank for this new tradition though I use the concept of "thanks" loosely.) I got Gingerbread Back, remember? That year, I used paper templates like these and cut the pieces out by hand, thereby mangling them upon transfer to the cookie sheet until they mutated into something like this:

(Photo of the Krzywy Domek, thanks to Wikipedia.)

Then I got smart  and bought this cookie cutter set and at the same time, due to some perfect alignment of the planets, discovered parchment paper. (Previously, I must've labored under some delusion that parchment paper was something only the Alton Browns of the universe could afford. Or perhaps it was willful ignorance. Who knew it was parked next to the foil?) Thank you cookie cutter people, and thank you parchment paper, and thank you red wine (note to self: have Atticus pick up wine on the way home tonight.)

Moving on to 2011:  I can honestly say this is actually getting easy ... or, um, -er, anyway. Easier. Time consuming, yes, but no longer excruciating. (I'm sorry, beloved daughters-o-mine, it's true -- the first year was excruciating. Excruciating but fun? Yeah, that works.)

Last week we baked two houses and froze the pieces, and this week we baked one more, along with a couple of pans of gingerbread men (but no candy canes ... I cannot find my candy cane cookie cutter. There. I said it again.)

Ramona originally agreed to to do a graham cracker house, along with several of the other younger kids in our homeschool group. But then she asked if she could do a gingerbread church to add to our gingerbread village, and how could I say no to a church? It seemed like something I'd have to go to confession for. ("So then, Father, I told her no to the church, and she started to cry ... ")

So we baked a church. And more gingerbread men. And a noticeable lack of gingerbread candy canes. (But if anyone mutters so much as a word I'm going to resign my post.)

Other helpful links I should mention:

Here's a great photo-filled how-to for constructing graham cracker houses. (Scroll down for photos of completed projects ... I love the four-year-old's house. Perfectly cute and gloppy.)

Royal icing (aka sweet cement) recipe.

Alton Brown (nothing to do with gingerbread houses, just long-standing obsession with admiration for the man with whom I share a scorn for unitaskers.)

And About Those Gingerbread Houses ...

... here are the results of the Gingerbread House Decorating Party (minus three houses, as that family left before we got a picture taken):

Help! I Have Gingerbread Back!

Because I spent the day  hunched over the kitchen counter making and baking homemade (for the first time ever ... please pat me on my aching back) gingerbread for our first-ever homemade gingerbread houses.  Who knew it would be so time consuming?

I got six houses put together:

and after tomorrow they will be beautifully decked out for the holidays.

And for eating.

In the past, Santa has always left gingerbread house kits for the kids on Christmas morning. We then put them together sometime during the Twelve Days of Christmas.  This has always worked well because Santa shops the after-Christmas clearance sales, picks up three kits, and squirrels them away for the following year. Santa never wants the girls to eat those gingerbread houses though, because -- yuck -- how good could they be after sitting in my Santa's closet for a year?

But, last year, Santa struck out on the after Christmas clearance sales and there was nothing in the closet.  So this year, Santa got creative and domestic.  I suggested to Ramona that we try making delicious, edible ("We can really eat them?") homemade houses.  Then, I told her, we can just suggest to Santa that he skip the kits this year. She was all for it.

So today I baked. And assembled. And called my friend for frosting advice.  And asked Atticus, when he arrived home from work, if he came bearing wine. He hadn't.

"I thought you had some wine," he said.

"Not enough," I replied. And then made more royal frosting. Do you know how much of that stuff it takes to keep a roof on?

Tomorrow we'll add candy and other accoutrements and I'll soon report back on our progress. But for now I'm off to give my back a rest and enjoy a glass of something dry and red.