Gingerbread Houses 2011

This has become my favorite part of our week between Christmas and NewYear's :)

All 4 of us do it quite easily this way: begin by building a structure with old cartons & boxes. Then stick graham crackers onto cartons with frosting (below). (Mine in foreground is an elbox pasta box laid down with a mini cereal box on top of it.)

Gotta have waffle-shaped square pretzels for windows. Icecream cones are great for towers, both triangular cones & classic cones (below).

Good variety of sizes and shapes of candy below, which you just stick on wherever with frosting.

These are an exciting addition too: gingerbread people cookies...

both our kids were hard at work and did a great job pretty much all on their own! foreground is our 5 y.o.'s, and our 7 y.o. is still working on the front of hers...

silly hubby's...

above: 7yo, below: mine

above: 5yo, below: hubby's

So fun. A family project for a couple hours. This is becoming a tradition to do in the week we all have a break, and one idea if you plan on this is: the candies and supplies could be the treats that are in the stockings on Christmas a.m.

New Christmas card 2011

My newest Christmas illustration! pencil & digital mixed media. Inside the card I wrote, "Merry Christmas from our small home to yours!" I wanted to feature a handprint wreath that we just made which includes all our hands (our two childrens', my husband's and mine). So I placed it on a front door, and naturally around the door I included things that are commonplace in winter in our home of small children-- boots and mittens scattered, little creations strewn, and decorations creatively added to, such as a car in the nativity scene, and a frog in the vase of Christmas flowers. This tells a story, as do the Christmas cards and invites on the door and the lightswitch, telling of this busy time of year. But the meaning in this crowded season is small, however-- and easy to miss if you don't look. On the back of the card I included this poem by Ann Voskamp: "Power plays and big takeovers, it's the way the world and Wall street turns. But God, when He comes, He shows up in this fetal ball. Just this seed unfurling, impossible power contained in the small." ~Ann Voskamp :) fun fact: on the printed card, the other mitten that matches the one on the front was found on the back of the card. My mom, forever a mother, told me she was excited to find that missing mitten on the back :) lol i love her. Does anyone else notice anything else in the illustration? :) ...... (to view my past Christmas card illustrations, click here and browse) Merry Christmas!