Happy Holidays

Well! I just haven't had much to say lately.

Or maybe I've been too busy to say much . . .

In either case, I am finally posting holiday happiness today—beginning with Halloween:

this is Ann;
Rachel had the posture
and walk down perfect

Here (above), as the family gathers for dinner, you see Jessica dressed as Heidi, and Rachel dressed as Ann
(a character from Studio C). It's funny that we have a traditional Halloween dinner when I don't think Halloween is such a great shakes of a holiday. In fact, we hardly manage to even dress up. But it is my annual excuse to make slime punch and snake for dinner. And this year I found instructions for this cute cake—the meringue ghosts are held up on glow-sticks. They don't really look so glowy unless you turn off all the lights; then it's kind of a fun effect.

snake dinner and ghost cake

For Thanksgiving this year we decided to just stay home and be our own little family. We were pretty partied out from sending Jason off, what with the bake sales, an early Thanksgiving dinner, extended-family family-home-evenings, an open-house, and just getting him out the door. And then  we had a big, extended-family Halloween dinner party at our house the day after Jason left. We were pooped out! (OK. That's a weird expression!) As Thanksgiving approached, however, we realized that Bruce's dad hadn't been invited anywhere so we asked him to our house.

 While I performed surgery on the turkey Bruce and the kids made snowflakes and hung them up.

 It was a nice day.

The day after Thanksgiving is our traditional "Decorate the House" day. Kaylie really took on most of the decorating this year.

On December 5 we all went to see Honk! Jr., the Entheos musical. Kaylie and Rachel were in it this year and they did a really great job. (I mean the whole cast did a great job; Kaylie and Rachel were fantastic! ;-))

Honk! is a musical about the Ugly Duckling. After the closing night performance Grandma Johnson gave these little swans to the girls.

Some time around Thanksgiving the kids drew each others' names to see who they would be making a hand-made gift for. So Santa's workshop was in full swing around here during the month of December.

Yes, that is a scroll-saw in my living room; Santa's elves were hard at work in our garage and we couldn't work out there. But what are the kids making?

On Christmas Eve we finally made our gingerbread house—and this one didn't fall apart before we could even decorate it. 

The kids put crushed hard candy designs into the windows . . .

and then I pour clear, hot candy into the windows to set them.

I build the house and the kids decorate it. (I'm there to operate the frosting bag and put "glue" wherever the kids want it.)

I'm not sure how much decorating Brandon actually did. But he did ham it up for the camera.

And here's the finished house:

front

back

aerial view

and the artists

This post is getting really long, but here are pictures from Christmas morning:

Ryan was the first to open his home-made gift—a messenger-bag with embroidered patches to sew on, made by Michael.

Michael got a creeper figure, made by Ryan. This is the second year running that they drew each others' names.

Brandon got a "snake with a mohawk" T-shirt designed and hand-painted by Rachel.

Jessica got a hand-puppet, made by Kaylie.

And Kaylie got a little wooden box that Brandon made for her.

 Jessica made a scarf for Lindsey,

and Rachel got this wooden cat puzzle from Lindsey. (I wish I could have captured the surprise and delight on her face when she opened it!)

Bruce didn't get a home-made present. He's just silly.

The hand-made gifts were the favorites again this year; this tradition is a keeper. In fact, Michael suggested that we just make gifts for everyone in the family, starting now, and forget the store-bought gifts. That's an idea . . .

We visited my parents and Bruce's dad in the afternoon, and then we got to call Jason on the phone for Christmas, and talk to him for nearly an hour. That's about five minutes for each of us, and an extra five for me. Yay! He's doing great. So we had a really nice day.

You'd think we would have slowed down and relaxed a little after Christmas, but that's not so. But it's also a story for another time.

For New Year's Eve we had lasagna for dinner, then we played a game together and had fresh chocolate-chip cookies and milk. 

yum!

After that we started a movie; I fell asleep in front of the movie, Bruce looked at facebook in front of the movie, and the kids went their separate ways. This is how we finished off New Year's Eve:

Lindsey playing a video game while Jessica, Kaylie and Ryan look on. Rachel was there too, but she was reading a book.

Bruce looking at his lap-top.

Michael playing a video game while Brandon watches. (Seriously, how fun can that actually be?)

And I went to bed at 10:30. What a bunch of dead-heads!

And now it is New Year's Day. Happy New Year!