Gingerbread Land

My mom has started a tradition to have the grandkids who are close by at the time to come to her home on a Saturday near Christmas, and decorate their own gingerbread houses. Last Saturday was the great day! Our table was full of candy, frosting and amazingly decorated gingerbread houses. The homes were similar to snowflakes where no 2 were alike. I felt like the homes brought out a bit of their unique personalities as well... Unfortunately I wasn't able to get everyone's finished home with their picture at the end. Enjoy the one's I was able to finagle :)

Merry Christmas!!!

I think this may be my very first Christmas card. What a great way to end my year of trying new things. My sisters have demonstrated that there are some great new ways to create a year in review. I decided to "do something new" and put together a smilebox Christmas card to share (and of course it's with hoops and yoyo). Here are just a few random things I have been able to experience this past year... as I was putting this together I realized I did a lot of things this year. It's too bad I could only put in a few things.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Thank you all for a memorable year. I hope you have a wonderful New Year!

Oh Christmas Tree...

I have FINALLY finished putting up my Christmas tree! This was a fun project to work on all week, as I tried to figure out what to place on my first Christmas tree. I purchased a 7 foot lighted palm tree in the summer, and have been counting down the days till I could put it up. I wanted to have something up this Christmas that reminded me of Arizona.

I had a lot of ideas as I was planning on putting it together. I don't have the ornaments that were given to me while growing up because they are still in Arizona with my parents. I am going to let my mom and dad hang them on their fabulous tree this year. I also was originally going to place my rubber chicken on the top, wearing a Santa's hat and having a red bell in his mouth. It would have been a tree topper everyone would have remembered. But I miscalculated the height of my apartment. I thought I had an 8 foot ceiling, but after I put my tree up realized that it was shorter. The rubber chicken would not fit. I will have to wait till I move into a taller place. I finally decided to decorate it with red and silver ornaments with a splash of gingerbread cookie ornaments. I originally thought to place just a hula skirt on the bottom, but after doing this discovered that it just didn't look right. I added a snow blanket, and it was just the touch it needed. It looks so pretty and I wish I could have captured it the way it looks when they are the only lights turned on. But I can't figure out how to turn my flash off my camera. (I would have a picture with me in it as well, but don't know how to set the camera to do this either.)

My mom sent me a package when my sister drove up at the end of summer. My mom gave me a present early in case I couldn't make it home to Arizona for Christmas this year. The wrapping that she chose for it matches my decor perfectly:) I have been really good not to peek. Although it I am really curious as to what she may have given to me this year. Doesn't the present looks like a package that floated onto a desert island.