A couple of weeks ago, I saw and bought a Gingerbread House kit for Josie and me to work on together. In my mind, I imagined it as this wondrous moment of mommy/daughter bonding time in which we smile lovingly at each other and take turns putting candy on our beautiful gingerbread house. It's what our favorite Christmas memories are made of, right?
WRONG! This "experience" totally did not meet my expectations (which, as usual, were probably set a little hight). In hind's sight, I don't know what I was thinking. I know it's ludicrous to place a 3 year old at a table surrounded by sugar and expect her to 1.) decorate the house in compliance with my OCD standards and 2.) not eat it. I wouldn't mind if she had some, but she just kept on pushing my buttons. Needless to say, my "happy memory making time" turned into me yelling at her to STOP EATING IT!!! (It was by far NOT my greatest parenting moment.) When she swiped her finger across the roof of our house and licked the icing off her finger, I'd had enough. She sat in the time-out chair while I finished the house. I guess I'll chalk this one up as a FAIL. Maybe we'll try again when she's 10 instead of 3.
On a positive note, we did complete the house and it is beautiful. :-)
Do you see the mischievous look on her face??????
She KNEW she was getting on my nerves and she was doing it on purpose!!!
Ok, so these pics make us look like something special like we got to go down on the ice and take our own shots at the goal or something. Awesome, right??? Reality is, we had these taken for FREE in front of a green screen. We were all VERY impressed at the quality of the pictures and the fact that they printed them in like 10 seconds. We really REALLY enjoyed the game, made most enjoyable by a sweet victory over the St. Louis Blues 3-1. I think the birthday boys really enjoyed their special outing! What a fun night!!! (Thanks to Nana & Papa for watching Josie!!)
Also for our birthday weekend celebration, I attempted my first batch of cake pops. I got a cake pop maker for Christmas (just like a waffle or sandwich maker, except it makes cute little round balls of cake!). It only makes 6 at a time, so halfway through the tedious process I was thinking this was all entirely over-rated. But the finished product came out so cute and delicious!!! I guess there's a learning curve to the process. I'm planning on making some more for Josie's valentines....we'll see how that goes!
Tonight we went with some church friends to eat dinner at Cock of the Walk and then on to the Opryland Hotel to see the Christmas lights. For my Texas friends who have never been to Opryland: let me just say that the pictures do NOT do it justice. The hotel has 3 different "conservatory" type indoor garden areas that in and of themselves are spectacular with water falls and plants and hidden pathways. It's like a fairytale world. But at Christmas....it's extra special. We had a great time walking around looking at all the lights. There must have been a million poinsettias planted throughout the hotel. It was absolutely beautiful! What a fun night with new friends. We are so blessed! Merry Christmas!!!!!
Last night our Ark Builders group at church had a Ladies Night Out event. We enjoyed a meal together at California Pizza Kitchen and then went to the church building for "craft time". We all brought our own supplies to make these wreaths by stringing Christmas ornaments onto a wire clothes hanger. We had a lot of fun and everyone's wreath looked great! It was interesting to see the different ornament selection everyone brought and everyone's unique creative taste. 
