December traditions

Since it's the last day of the year, I'd like to get caught up on some of our December happenings.

One nice thing about moving back near my family is that we get to participate in my family's traditions.  My mom has two things she does every year--her trim-the-tree party and gingerbread houses.  Tyler has done only done these things once or twice, so it was fun to get to do them this year.

First, trim-the-tree is always the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  The grandkids help grandma decorate her house for Christmas.  She also gives them each a new Christmas ornament, and has a pinata for them to break.  Tyler thought it was great that he broke it this year.

And then my camera battery died before I could take pictures of the kids' new ornaments.  Tyler got a light up nutcracker and the twins got football shaped bells.  In my little gift my mom had tucked in a baby ornament, so Jackson did get his first ornament as well--a blue baby bottle.

Gingerbread houses
My mom has been making these for at least 20 years.  She cooks all the gingerbread from scratch and uses the same pattern to cut out each house.  We loved doing it as kids and the grandkids now look forward to it each year.

Tyler went to town and did great.  The twins had one to do together.  Brady stuck a few pieces of candy on, but was more interested in eating the candy.  Carter helped me with the whole process, but of course also wanted to eat all the candy around him and from his house.  I think everyone's turned out great.