Christmas Season Fun!

Well, I know I have not posted about our Disney trip yet but that will have to come next week. In the meantime, I have been capturing some of our favorite Christmas season activities, which mostly revolve around food - no surprise there!

First we made a ginger bread house. We gathered all the ingredients and spent the better part of a day making the cookie batter, cutting out the shapes, baking....and puleeeese. We built it out of a pre-made kit, of course!

Will had been begging me for a couple of weeks to make the house so my little helpers were thrilled when I finally agreed to put it together.

Will mushing the pre-made icing bag really, really hard

"I love this ginger bread house"

Hmm..slide side A into slot B and repeat!

Ok, guys...hold it just like that...I will be back in about 10 minutes :)

And then we skip to the end, which is the best part!

The next project after we finished the Ginger Bread house -which by the way I think tastes gross- we moved on to what I believe to be man's greatest achievement in the perfect combination of salty and sweet. That's right, I am talking about Pretzel Kisses + M-n-Ms. A simple culinary masterpiece that helps make life worth living.

Step 1 - Engage your unpaid child labor chocolate Kiss un-wrappers with bribes related to said chocolate Kisses.

Step 2 - Artfully arrange (read: randomly throw) square pretzels onto a cookie sheet and place one Kiss on top of each pretzel. Place in a 170 degree oven for 4-6 minutes or until the chocolate is soft to the touch. Don't heat them too long or instead of the chocolate being soft, the kisses will dry out and crumble.  Ask me how I know this.  Anyhoo.

Step 3 - Remove the pretzel kisses from the oven and quickly press a single M-n-M into each soft, mushy kiss. Place into the refrigerator to cool. Voila, you are done!

I dare you, nay, I triple DOG DARE you to eat just one. It. Can. Not. Be. Done.

Lastly, I would be remiss if I did not mention the Hughes girls' annual outing to the Nutcracker Ballet. Eliza Grace is becoming such a little lady!

Well, all of the above (plus recuperating from our trip to Walt Disney World) has made up our last 2 weeks. In between there has been work, house work, playing and lots of Christmas music.
Now if you excuse me, I must ensure there are still a couple of pretzel kisses left for me!
Merry Christmas!

Tradition

One of the many things that Eliza Grace and I have in common is that we both have a deep love of tradition. But then again, I think that all humans have a love for tradition.
Traditions help us feel connected, nostalgic, part of something bigger than ourselves - a family, a community or even just part of the human race.

Anyhoo, before I wax any deeper, let me get to the point. Eliza Grace, age six mind you, has insisted upon many traditions around the Christmas holidays.

It is tradition that she and Grandmommy go to the Old Salem Candle Tea EVERY year. It is their special time together and even though this was only year number two of the tradition,
she was insistent that they had to go...because...it's tradition!

Another biggie is when she and I dress up and go to see the Carolina Ballet's version of  The Nutcracker Ballet. I have to admit that I really look forward to this. It is a mother-daughter thing for sure.

I love seeing all the other families there with the little girls all dressed in red and pink with bows in their hair. Some mothers drag bring their little boys with their khaki pants, dress shirts and slicked down hair. They are all so handsome.

However, since I know that Scott would rather poke himself in the eye than sit through the ballet, we leave him and Will to their own devices and off we girls go, all decked out for the show.

And with all that as a prelude, here are some pictures of our traditional outing to see the Nutcracker Ballet!

In front of Memorial Auditorium in Raleigh

They decorate the lobby with lots of beautiful Christmas trees

My little pixie!

Waiting for the show to begin

Disappointment that the show was over...well really, she was pouting because I would not let her walk on the wall surrounding the fountain.