It’s been quite a hectic end of the year with loads of work, Mya starting kindergarten, a few deaths in the family (so close together), a not-so-pleasant Mexican Riviera cruise, Solana’s 1st birthday and Mya’s 5th birthday. I did a lot of projects but wasn’t able to document it as much as I hoped. It’s one of those situations when you’re under the wire and you just want to get things done so the picture taking goes by the wayside. I’m sure there are photos of the final product somewhere, but I have to gather them and post them at a future date.
I was able to get Christmas photos off of the camera before they were off-loaded onto another computer.
Here’s this year’s tree on Christmas eve:
I’ve used the same color scheme year after year. I grabbed some silk poinsettias from my Mom’s supply of stuff from her old flower shop. It really filled the tree. We also have some fun ornaments in there, mostly tchotchkes we grabbed on our honeymoon and turned into ornaments and items from the girls’ birthday parties. Can you spot the cupcake? It’s made out of Sculpey. I’m a first-timer with the product and I over-baked it—It cracked, but it wasn’t anything that a glue gun couldn’t fix. I also covered up the biggest crack with a real cupcake wrapper.
Gingerbread houses for the neighbors:
These houses were about 4 inches on each side and 6 inches high. I didn’t have enough candy canes and peppermint sticks so I broke up some mints for the corners—It kind of has a stacked stone feel, don’t you think? The lights are candy and chocolate coated sunflower seeds.
I made 9 houses, and 8 went to the neighbors and friends. Mya had a house to herself to decorate (hence the reason why I didn’t have enough peppermint sticks).
Christmas was a bit easier this year – no handmade gifts for my friends’ kids plus we drew names for a gift exchange. It’s so much easier than finding the right gift for 6 kids.