December Ditties - 2018 - Blog(mas) Gingerbread Houses

This is an open apology to my kids.  I'm sorry, we should have been making gingerbread houses every year when you were little but I was "too busy."  Really, I just didn't want to deal with the mess because you know that once you were done making them, you were done.

Isn't this one cute?  It looks like a happy face I think.  At least, I think that way now.  Then I thought, "That doesn't look like the picture on the box."

You see, at that time I wanted them to be perfect.  I wasn't allowing for creative license or little kids having fun.  Kind of selfish on my part now that I think about it.   

This one is a little closer to what the picture on the box looks like but it was done by our daughter and her boyfriend (at the time) and they were in high school.  

I had some nerve thinking that it had to be picture perfect given the fact that I had tried to make some "special" cakes for them that didn't quite turn out like I wanted them to:

Look like a crayon box?

Princess castle?

They never said, "Mom, that doesn't look like the picture" and the cakes got eaten for sure.  Of course, the next year they might have said, "Mom, can I have a store bought cake this year?"  Still, that would have been okay with me since it was much easier to buy a cake than make one.

So again, I say to Amanda, Jeff and Rachel, I'm sorry that we didn't make more gingerbread houses because as I see now that you are all grown, its not about the houses, it's about the memories.  Love you!  Mom

This is part of the Blog(mas) series from KaylaAnn.  She is writing some pretty cool stuff about her Christmas memories and favorites as well.  You should definitely check it out.  

December Ditties - 2018 Blog(mas) And the Stockings were hung...

but I can't say "by the chimney with care" because we don't have a fireplace anymore.  I wish we did. 

The stocking in the middle here is our oldest daughter, Amanda's.  She got it for her first Christmas from her grandparents in Oregon and has used it ever since, even though the rest of us have stockings with our names on them. 

Last year since my mom was going to be with us for Christmas and we had one of my husband's friends staying here, we added a few stockings to the wall.  

When the kids were little and wanted us to get up at some ungodly hour on Christmas morning we would say..."We'll be up in a little bit, why don't you see what Santa put in your stockings."  That might buy us another half hour or so but the risk was that they would eat the candy that was usually in there and be hyper.  Sometimes I remembered to say "Don't eat the candy!"

Now that they are all older and living on their own "Santa" puts more practical gifts in there like travel size toiletries, lotto tickets, socks that kind of stuff.  Yeah, a couple of pieces of candy too. 

Do you have stockings?  Have a fireplace to hang them by?  What do you use as stocking stuffers? 

December Ditties - 2018 - Blog(mas) A gift that keeps on giving

Blog(mas) Day 4

My family has spread out over the years and we really don't see each other as often as we'd like so one year I decided to make a gift that I hoped would help keep us closer.  I knew that everyone decorated their house so I made some little ornaments for each of the big holidays. 

Valentine's Day hanging pocket, Easter banner, 4th of July wreath and door knob hanger and a Christmas goodie bag.

I put one decoration for each holiday in a box and I wrote a little note to go with them:

Well I’ll bet you didn’t know it

but I’m really not a poet

and I never learned to do

that other thing called Haiku

so this year let’s just say

these little guys come your way

with love from us to you!

A ghost ornament, star wind chime, snowman notepad and Christmas banner

Cornucopia for Thanksgiving.  

I explained to the family that each time they changed the decorations in their homes, they would have some small thing to put up that was made by us and that way they would think of us all year long.  

This was a set one year, Valentine heart hanger, 4th of July star, ghost ornament, Thanksgiving magnet and a Santa pail.  

They really liked the idea and I know that I've seen the decorations up when I've gone to visit.  They were not expensive to make but I think it turned out pretty nice.  It was also a fun thing to do with my kids as they helped me make the decorations.   

After a couple of years I decided to try something different so I made up a "Surprise of the Month Club" along the lines of the wine basket club and fruit of the month club.  I sent this letter with the first gift:

This was the first gift, a gingerbread house.  You can see that it cracked a bit in the mail.  

For February I made individual heart brownies and put their initials on them.

March was brownies in the shape of a shamrock.

April was Oreos covered in chocolate and icing.

May was a cupcake flower basket.

I don't remember what I made for the rest of the year (assuming I didn't flake out and stop doing it!) and I don't have any pictures to remind me.  I'm a bit bummed about that.    

We have since stopped exchanging gifts at all, as things tend to go sometimes.  I don't even put up many decorations myself anymore.  It is fun to see the pictures and remember these things though.  

How about you?  Give handmade gifts?  Decorate for the holidays?  Love to hear about it.  

December Ditties - 2018 - Blog(mas) The Holiday Train

Our CalTrain has been participating with the Silicon Valley Community Foundation since 2001 with the Holiday Train.  This train runs from San Francisco to Santa Clara, usually on the first weekend in December, and makes 20 minute stops in several of the cities along the way. 

During the stops Santa and his friends get off the train and mingle with the crowd.  There are usually some other activities going on as well.  

Some stops have face painting or balloon artists and sometimes the neighborhood high school band will play.

They also have bins to collect toys for tots and last year they got over 3000 new toys for deserving children.  Frosty the Snowman is there.  

There is usually someone selling hot chocolate too of course.  Wouldn't be right if Rudolph didn't come.    

Santa makes his way up and down the line handing out candy and shaking hands. 

It is very bright and festive and it puts everyone in a good mood.  Gotta have a Nutcracker! 

One of the cars has carolers and they sing a few songs.

Then the train moves on to its next stop with Santa waving from inside.  

I am sorry I didn't know about this train until 2007.  It is a really fun thing to do with the kids and it is free!  That makes it even better.  

The Holiday train used to stop at our station.  Then they elevated our platform above the roadway and now it doesn't stop there anymore.  We live a block away from the station though so a couple of years ago I had my camera ready and managed to catch it as it went by.  It is really pretty all lit up.  

I was mad that I didn't set an alarm on my phone to remind me to catch it this year.  I was going to walk up to the platform and take another video from there.  Have to wait until next year now.

Side note, in the #DecemberReflections2018, today's prompt is Orange and I think my first picture captures that color pretty well, don't you? 

Have you seen or heard of the Holiday Train?