Gingerbread Houses and Christmas Décor
I was planning to sleep in this morning but around 8:30 my sister called me up and asked if I was coming to breakfast. She was working at the deli and wanted me to bring in her kids. So I got ready to go, picked up grandma, picked up her kids and headed to breakfast.
Ingrid wanted us to show up early because there was a bazaar going on and parking would be scarce. She wasn't kidding. I dropped off Kaleb and grandma before finding a parking space. Brandon stayed with me until I parked the car (of his own accord) and we headed inside. We seated ourselves in Ingrid's section and got our usual breakfast fare, which was good as usual.
After breakfast I dropped grandma off at her house along with Kaleb. Brandon opted to stay with me since we were going to a Gingerbread house workshop at the local Safeway store. I got home and the kids were nowhere near ready. -_- After a few Flash animations and some showering we were finally ready for the workshop.
We headed over to Safeway and to the bakery where the workshop was held. I was surprised that it was such a small area (just one table that would seat 8). The people there were finishing up their houses so we waited patiently. Once they were done and the table re-cleaned we were given our houses to work on. The deal with the workshop is that you buy the house ($9.99) and pay for the workshop ($1) and the decorations are complimentary. It may not sound like too good a deal if you only saw all the candy we were able to use you would know that it was more than a deal.
I set the boys to work on one house while my daughter and I worked on the other. I gave her one side of the roof, the back and one side of the house while I took basically the other half. My son and Brandon decided that the house was going to be a game house. They started with Nintendo and worked through as many names as they could put on there. In the end their house didn't have much candy but was definitely covered in game related names. ^_^ Brandon then got the brilliant idea to stash some candy inside the house. ^_^
On my side of the table my daughter and I worked on our house. I worked meticulously to make mine symmetrical, decorative and filled with candy. My daughter on the other hand went crazy with the red frosting. By the end of it she was just eating the red frosting (which the store lady said she could because they were just going to throw it away anyway). I was not happy that she was eating it and told her to stop on many occasions. Sadly I was focused on finishing so we could leave. We were there for at least two hours working on the houses.
The lady supervising the workshop at the store told me that we were the funnest group of people in there all day. I find that both complimentary and sad. Making these houses should be a fun event between parents and kids. I think some of the parents even left their kids to work on the gingerbread houses while they went off shopping through the store (as evidenced by one woman who showed up as we arrived to pick up her kid and then complained about having to pay for the house). -_-
The following are some pictures of the event as labeled. Clicking on them will bring up larger versions in a separate window and explain them in more detail.
The kids getting started on the houses.
Brendalie's house as it was when she first started
Brendalie's Pink Teeth and her pretending to eat the candy off our finished house
The four sides of the boys' finished house. Pretty creative if you ask me.
The clearest picture I got of any of the sides of the house I worked on.
The two sides of the house my daughter and I worked on. Definitely a stark difference between the two. ^_^
After the workshop we headed back to grandma's house so we could help her with getting her Christmas tree and decorations up. I had the boys go into the garage and pull out the ornaments, lights and her new tree. We got it all in the house and started to work on setting it up. Ingrid showed up for a little bit and I showed her the houses. She thought they were pretty good. ^_^ She got to take home the game one because her son had worked on it too.
I set to helping set up the new tree after Ingrid left. Well we knew almost right away that something wasn't right about it. The base of the tree was really large! I looked at the box for the tree and it said 7feet tall with a 5 foot base! O_O Grandma was unbelievably negative about it and was ready to throw the thing out. -_- I told her to calm down and that we would figure something out.
After some creative thinking I managed to get the tree up and within the space she had for it. I eliminated the bottom row of branches (which you can't tell by looking at it). Then I took the second row from the bottom and spread the branches apart so the tree is no bigger around than the third row from the bottom. It worked out perfectly in my opinion and the tree looks beautiful. Grandma, however, still doesn't want to keep the tree. She said she will use it this year and then she wants to switch me for her old one next year. -_- I can't win I tell you.
So after getting the tree up we put on the new sets of lights and some of the beaded garland she has. That was about our limit for the day (at around 6pm) and we headed home. We will be back today to finish up with the ornaments. For now though, the tree looks beautiful! :D
The rest of the day was pretty routine and boring so I will just skip it.
Ingrid wanted us to show up early because there was a bazaar going on and parking would be scarce. She wasn't kidding. I dropped off Kaleb and grandma before finding a parking space. Brandon stayed with me until I parked the car (of his own accord) and we headed inside. We seated ourselves in Ingrid's section and got our usual breakfast fare, which was good as usual.
After breakfast I dropped grandma off at her house along with Kaleb. Brandon opted to stay with me since we were going to a Gingerbread house workshop at the local Safeway store. I got home and the kids were nowhere near ready. -_- After a few Flash animations and some showering we were finally ready for the workshop.
We headed over to Safeway and to the bakery where the workshop was held. I was surprised that it was such a small area (just one table that would seat 8). The people there were finishing up their houses so we waited patiently. Once they were done and the table re-cleaned we were given our houses to work on. The deal with the workshop is that you buy the house ($9.99) and pay for the workshop ($1) and the decorations are complimentary. It may not sound like too good a deal if you only saw all the candy we were able to use you would know that it was more than a deal.
I set the boys to work on one house while my daughter and I worked on the other. I gave her one side of the roof, the back and one side of the house while I took basically the other half. My son and Brandon decided that the house was going to be a game house. They started with Nintendo and worked through as many names as they could put on there. In the end their house didn't have much candy but was definitely covered in game related names. ^_^ Brandon then got the brilliant idea to stash some candy inside the house. ^_^
On my side of the table my daughter and I worked on our house. I worked meticulously to make mine symmetrical, decorative and filled with candy. My daughter on the other hand went crazy with the red frosting. By the end of it she was just eating the red frosting (which the store lady said she could because they were just going to throw it away anyway). I was not happy that she was eating it and told her to stop on many occasions. Sadly I was focused on finishing so we could leave. We were there for at least two hours working on the houses.
The lady supervising the workshop at the store told me that we were the funnest group of people in there all day. I find that both complimentary and sad. Making these houses should be a fun event between parents and kids. I think some of the parents even left their kids to work on the gingerbread houses while they went off shopping through the store (as evidenced by one woman who showed up as we arrived to pick up her kid and then complained about having to pay for the house). -_-
The following are some pictures of the event as labeled. Clicking on them will bring up larger versions in a separate window and explain them in more detail.
The kids getting started on the houses.
Brendalie's house as it was when she first started
Brendalie's Pink Teeth and her pretending to eat the candy off our finished house
The four sides of the boys' finished house. Pretty creative if you ask me.
The clearest picture I got of any of the sides of the house I worked on.
The two sides of the house my daughter and I worked on. Definitely a stark difference between the two. ^_^
After the workshop we headed back to grandma's house so we could help her with getting her Christmas tree and decorations up. I had the boys go into the garage and pull out the ornaments, lights and her new tree. We got it all in the house and started to work on setting it up. Ingrid showed up for a little bit and I showed her the houses. She thought they were pretty good. ^_^ She got to take home the game one because her son had worked on it too.
I set to helping set up the new tree after Ingrid left. Well we knew almost right away that something wasn't right about it. The base of the tree was really large! I looked at the box for the tree and it said 7feet tall with a 5 foot base! O_O Grandma was unbelievably negative about it and was ready to throw the thing out. -_- I told her to calm down and that we would figure something out.
After some creative thinking I managed to get the tree up and within the space she had for it. I eliminated the bottom row of branches (which you can't tell by looking at it). Then I took the second row from the bottom and spread the branches apart so the tree is no bigger around than the third row from the bottom. It worked out perfectly in my opinion and the tree looks beautiful. Grandma, however, still doesn't want to keep the tree. She said she will use it this year and then she wants to switch me for her old one next year. -_- I can't win I tell you.
So after getting the tree up we put on the new sets of lights and some of the beaded garland she has. That was about our limit for the day (at around 6pm) and we headed home. We will be back today to finish up with the ornaments. For now though, the tree looks beautiful! :D
The rest of the day was pretty routine and boring so I will just skip it.