You know on here I am huge on having people in your home and building relationships. My friend Ashley’s mom comes to mind when I think about entertaining and having an open house!  Ginger and her hubby have people in and out of their home ALL of the time. There is always a bag of chips and homemade salsa on hand and people are typically discussing the next meal! Because they are amazing cooks and love to gather around a great meal! I haven’t been to Ginger’s house in probably 10 years at least but I know it’s still the same.

As I was thinking through holiday activities and things to share with all of you I thought of Ashley and her family and wondered if I could talk her into sharing a bit about their gingerbread house party tradition. Now, like Lisa from the last post, these gals are in Texas so they do it up big.

One of my favorite times building up to Christmas is my family’s
tradition of making gingerbread houses.  As far back as I can
remember, my mom had made the dough (as did her mother), rolled it
out, cut it into little pieces, and baked the pieces for assembly day.
We could much easier go out and buy the kits, but the process of
actually making the houses has been a fun memory of mine.

I think I was 4 when I remember (only by seeing pictures in old photo
albums) my mom starting this tradition passed on from my grandmother.
Mom did one house for our family for a long time, but my mom wanted
more and more families to enjoy the joy of “art” of making their own
house.  This year (2012), my mom and I rolled out 20 (!) gingerbread
houses.  Mom made the dough and I was her workhorse for the rolling
and cutting the next day.  We started rolling and cutting around 9am
and carried on until about 4 in the afternoon so that everyone we had
invited would have their own house to do.  Turns out my little family
took up 3 of the houses this year.  Landon (12), Riley (6) got to do
their own houses and I had to do mine myself (or I would have taken
over the boys’ houses)! OK, it was mine and my husband’s house, but he
graciously let me have all the fun 😉

On assembly day, I got to my mom’s house around 8 in the morning to
help set up.  My grandmother, aunt and Mom were already hard at work
in the kitchen making the “glue” for the houses.  Mom has a recipe for
Royal Icing she uses to glue the houses together and for all the candy
to stick on, as well.  While the icing is being whipped to oblivion
(it’s gotta be STIFF– think DQ Blizzard thick), we are setting up
more candy than you can imagine!  A few bowl on every table leaves
just enough room for the actual houses to be decorated!  Our guests
arrive around 10 and the fun really starts!  There are always people
who have not assembled a house before, so we help get them started,
but from there, it’s just icing and candy flying around for the next 4
hours.  It’s literally a SWEET time:) 

We try and get pictures of everyone before they leave with their completed houses and it’s so
much fun to look back every year and see how the houses have
progressed.

I could go on and on about the houses, but I’d rather Kristen share
with you our pictures!  Hope you enjoy!  Merry Christmas!

Thanks  for sharing, Ashley! I should be sending my boys down for gingerbread house school with you and your mom next year!  I might just have to try my hand at making some homemade next year. I do love me a good kit but this looks like so much fun!  Another friend mentioned doing gingerbread nativities so that might make the list next year too!

For those of you that find yourselves bored this weekend (this is kind of a joke because I don’t know anyone who isn’t packed with activities) before Christmas and your house does not yet have a little fragrant gingerbread house roll up your sleeves and give it a try! Don’t be intimidated! The walls might fall in and your hands will be sticky but it will be a good time!    And you don’t need 50 kinds of candy although they look divine, start slow and small. Pull out graham crackers if you don’t want to bake!

For you brave folks, Ashley has shared the family recipes!! Invite someone in to enjoy it with you!

this is my 90 year old Nana making on with the boys last yr! This is their “tada”

BASIC GINGERBREAD HOUSE RECIPE

6 cups flour

1 ¾ cups sugar

2/3 cup shortening

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

1 tablespoon ground ginger

2 teaspoons double-acting baking powder

1 ¼ teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 8-ounce container sour cream

2 eggs

To prepare dough:  Into large bowl, measure 3½ cups flour and remaining ingredients. With mixer at low speed, beat until well mixed, constantly scraping bowl with rubber spatula. With hands, knead in remaining 2½ cups flour to make a soft dough. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate 2 hours or until dough is not sticky and is of easy kneading consistency.

To roll dough: Keep refrigerated until ready to use. Working with half a batch at a time on lightly floured work surface with lightly floured hands, knead dough until smooth. (Do not skip this step!!!) Roll out to 1/8” thickness on well-floured surface such as muslin stretched over a cutting board. (To help create uniform thickness, roll out between 2 wooden dowels placed on either side of dough.) Lay patterns on top and cut with sharp knife. Place on ungreased baking sheet. Bake at 350 degree oven for 15-18 minutes until golden brown and very firm when lightly touched with finger. Cool on wire rack.

ORNAMENTAL ICING

1 16-ounce package confectioners’ sugar (about 4½ cups)

½ teaspoon cream of tartar

3 egg whites at room temperature

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Combine all ingredients in bowl. With mixer, blend until smooth, then beat at high speed until very stiff. Makes 3 cups. Keep icing covered as it dries very quickly. Yum.

This recipe came from Grandma Lina, who got it out of a Good Housekeeping magazine sometime in the 1960’s. The original gingerbread houses she made were placed on a paper Coke carton for stability. As long as the air inside remains humidity-free, the house should stand. In 2007, Kelly’s lasted through August of 2008!

We are soaking up the holiday season around here and attempting to slow down in the midst of the bustle. This week has been far from slow and I am feeling the effects. There have certainly been moments of calm and lots of memory making moments, but also tough times thrown in.

We decorated the Christmas tree on Saturday and curled up Sat night for a homemade pizza/family movie night.  We watched The Polar Express.  It was a big hit! Seth and I saw it in 3D 8 yrs ago when we started dating. 3D would have been way too much for the boys but the regular version was great!

On Sunday night we spent the evening worshiping with our friends Tim and Susan and their children at Floris United Methodist Church. We made an advent log with candles to light each week. Seth and I have always wanted to do advent activities as a family but somehow it typically gets lost in the shuffle. This year we are trying to do a family devotional in the evenings at dinner time. The boys are enjoying lighting the candle and listening to the story.

On Monday we  met up with Owen’s new friend from Sunday school. A few weeks ago the SS teacher reported that Owen was attracted to JT and spent lots of time interacting with him. JT has cerebral palsy so it takes a little bit longer to say what he wants to say but Owen doesn’t mind a bit. He waits JT out until he gets the answer he wants. And if he thinks JT isn’t listening he just gets in close until his buddy gives him a big smile and responds. Owen loves interacting with him and they have become great buddies. We met he and his mom and siblings at Frying Pan park for the boys to have a play date.   Many of my hours each day are spent disciplining and getting after Owen for not being gentle and kind. This play date kind of rocked my world and gave me a glimpse into this sensitive, gentle side of Owen.

And today was the big cast cut off day, for the big red cast that is!   Jackson was delighted until he learned he can’t do recess or sports until the end of Jan!  It will be an interesting 6 weeks of continued carefulness. Testing us all.  Pray for patience!!  I realized I haven’t even written yet about the second break but to be honest I am so not enjoying this part of life write now so I may just avoid the whole topic a while longer.  I never knew what the impact would be of Jackson being so limited in activity. But back to the good stuff…

his arm is so scrawny and stinky!  My mom wanted me to use the word “scrawny” again so I could spell is correctly this time. He’s bending his wrist funny in the above picture…I promise he doesn’t still have a bent arm.  It is sore and he is not quite sure how to use it again but I am guessing a few days from now he will forget and be using it normally.

I was going to title this post “our week in pics” but I was a bit shocked to discover it’s only Wed and I have spared you lots of our week!!  Tomorrow is St. Nicholas day and I am thinking about making the little bread boys like we did with Daniela last year!  I will try to hop back on and share some pictures if we get around to baking!

I am not ready to talk about our terrible, no good, very bad day we had on Friday! So in the meantime I will share with you about our thanksgiving. We drove to Maryland to my Aunt Carrol and Uncle Mike’s house. My grandmother came up from Florida and my cousin is living at home currently and her boyfriend came for the weekend too so it was a fun bunch and a very special time. I don’t see my relatives nearly enough but when I do I want to soak up the time.

For the Thanksgiving feast I was in charge of appetizers, drinks and the dessert. For appetizers I made a baked brie in brioche (cheated and got this at costco, and to be honest it wasn’t so amazing!) I also made Southern Living’s Bacon Blue Cheese Dip. Always a hit.  For dessert I made pumpkin pies and cheated again by buying a pecan pie.  My aunt made a wonderful spread with tons of sides and my cousin even made homemade rolls.  We were all stuffed by the end!

Jackson lent Owen his Indian costume he made at school, but clearly forgot to explain that the Pilgrims and Indians were friends at the Thanksgiving feast. This is Owen’s half asleep “smiling” Indian face.

Owen was sabotaging the soccer game outside so got sent in for some reading time.  He enjoyed cuddling up next to my grandmother. Jackson wrote our name cards this year and assigned people to be either pilgrims or indians. My cousin Linnea and her boyfriend Tim were Squanto and Pocohontas.

We cut the top off of our pumpkin and put the flowers in it for my aunt…I had never done this before but it made a great little vase. I put a plastic cup inside because I wasn’t sure how the flowers would like the pumpkin guts!

And as if we weren’t full enough, yesterday I roasted a turkey while we worked around the house. I wanted to have some turkey for sandwiches and cooking for the next few days. I didn’t mess with lots of sides. We kept it simple with sweet potato casserole and stuffing. We had a very low key dinner, in fact a few bites in I realized we forgot the cranberry sauce so this is how it was served!  From the can. Letting go of perfection around here! And none of my distinguished dinner guests even noticed. Oh and the shirtless kid. The other boy was still in his pj’s at dinner (as promised after his hospital day, I told him he could stay in them ALL day if he wanted…and he wanted) and was relearning how to use his newly casted wrist with ziplock bag combo.

And last but not at all the least of our thanksgiving updates is that Seth requested a hot turkey sandwich today. Open face turkey sandwiches are a Seckinger family tradition and one Seth has been a little scared of in years past. The boy has come around!!

This year I am trying to be intentional about enjoying the holiday season. For money reasons we are keeping things simple gift-wise but we are trying to still pick some special things to do with the kids throughout the holiday season. Yesterday we had tickets from a living social deal for an enchanted forest. It was really just a small Christmas bazaar. I had built up my expectations so didn’t think it had as much as I thought going on but the kids had no idea what they were missing and we all had a good time. They had crafts for the kids, performances by different dance groups, a train room, a magic show, etc.  The highlight was a room full of holiday train sets. The boys loved it. Their other favorite thing was a magic show by a pirate, who oddly used lots of potty talk and didn’t seem to know what was appropriate, sheesh. So much for potty mouth boot camp at our house. As we snuck out of the magic show early we ran into Santa Clause who was about to get going with all of the professional cameras. While the people bustled to get set up he told us we could snap our own pictures. Owen is standing by his closed eye smile! It wasn’t until after the pictures that I realized this was our first fear-free, scream-free year of meeting Santa. The boys walked up like they knew him and didn’t hesitate when I told them to jump on up. It was a fun morning out as a family. Away from the house projects and upkeep!

I ordered our Christmas cards last night. I have NEVER had them done this early. And it is just a little way I am letting go this year. I began hunting for the perfect picture, pining to take a more recent one, wondering what everyone would wear, and then I just pulled up a picture of the boys from yesterday. Not perfect, no.  Owen’s hand has a big pirate tattoo smack next to Jackson’s cheek and his eyes are almost closed in intense smile oblivion, but they are loving each other and happy and I am letting go of the perfect Christmas card picture for the sake of enjoying the other things that feel far more important!

My next item on the holiday checklist is to get gifts wrapped in the next couple of weeks. Not to be superwoman but to avoid being so stressed and bogged down as the holiday season progresses. I am usually in such a tailspin and so tired by Christmas that it passes by without being enjoyed! Hoping to avoid that this year.

and some blasts from the Santa’s past…

Bogota 2007

Bogota 2008

Bern 2010

We have been lucky enough to get free Santa pictures at Embassy parties in past years. The times we were in the US Seth didn’t think it was worth the money to pay for crying kids to sit on Santa’s lap.