It has been a very full week here at the Shard household. Let’s see…yesterday we got a bit of a storm and it was so beautiful to watch the big flakes float down so softly from the sky. I love the silence that comes with the fluffy flakes. It’s very serene and peaceful to me. It’s almost like those millions of flakes are saying, “Shhh…slow down…look at us…enjoy us…”.

I know, yet again, I have used my iPhone for another pic. Ugh – I can’t help myself sometime. I need to go out and get a good point and shoot, I’m just too fussy and can’t decide. I don’t want to pay $500 for a p&s when I have a super-duper dslr. So, for now, it’s iPhone because I’m just too lazy sometimes to go upstairs and get my camera out of the bag. I know, silly, but true. However, I did use it today to take some great pics of all of the cousins when they came over today to exchange gifts. It’s amazing as they get older they actually all sit and listen and look at the camera – wow!!! I will post one of the pics if it’s okay with everyone – gotta check that first….

Yesterday, I started the long and arduous, yet mostly enjoyable, task of making a GF gingerbread house from scratch. You can’t buy ‘em gluten-free and L&X saw the cookie cutter set at the store so I couldn’t help myself. It did go fairly well all things considered, I guess, but I did try to hurry things along since I only had one cookie tray and I had to work later. I didn’t wait for the cookies to cool down before transferring them to a rack. Some of them were too soft and fell apart. I had to redo one roof part, two sides and two fronts. We also have a temper-mental oven so some of the bottoms got a little too cooked although the tops were perfect. Seriously? Why? All part of the process I know.

At this point I had to relinquish the power of the gg house creating to Steve. I had to go to work. On the bus. In the snow. Fun. So the rest was up to Steve and the boys. I got a pic of the first icing-making effort – it was not pretty. It was clumpy. Oil and icing sugar do not mix. Literally. We usually use oil as a sub for margarine for making breads because it’s easier and cheaper. Cookies too. No problem there. But, apparently, not so good for icing. So, try number two came out with better results, albeit still a bit tricky. Here’s a pic of what’s been constructed so far with a little help from some Tim’s cups for support:

I think it looks great! Can we be done now? I’m afraid to touch it for fear the roof may slide off. I’ll keep you posted, fingers crossed!

This morning, although we had a plethora of things yet to accomplish before family arrived at 1pm, I was determined to make a wack of gf waffles again so I could freeze some for future breakfasts. Future meaning like Christmas morning. Meaning tomorrow morning. Tripling the recipe according to Catherine’s recipe went very well and we managed to have a load left over. Off to the freezer they went. Cool.

I must say here that the iPhone is certainly fun to use when the lighting is right. So fun!

Waffles and breakfast over-with, next on the list was um, making gf sugar cookies. I made up the dough and put it into the fridge to chill at which point it becomes a blur. I know that suddenly it was noon and I had to sew seven little stockings to put treats into and I hadn’t even taken a good look at my ‘new’ sewing machine. (A great find on Kijiji and only used once before me) I crossed my fingers and plugged in the sewing machine and sewed a sample piece. Ah, it ran smooth as butta. Beautiful! I finished the stockings at about 12:45 which was longer than necessary but I realized, with Steve’s help, that I was one stocking short and it took me a bit to find the extra material. It was on top of the microwave in a papier-maché bowl. Isn’t that where everyone keeps extra material?

I was thinking of an easy way to close the top of the stockings without the kids struggling to rip open a sewn top so I used some previously painted green clothes pins. Perfect! The kids loved them, I think especially since they were unexpected. I like that. :0 Aren’t they cute? I can’t take all the credit – Martha Stewart made me do it.

1pm, family arriving and I’m making sugar cookies. The dough is so much easier to roll out as it is much ‘wetter’ I want to say. But, that being said, this makes it harder to transfer to the cookie sheet. So, not only did some of them burn on the bottom (a bit), some of them were also not really recognizable. Our niece held up one cookie asking what it was. I said, ‘It’s holly. No. It’s a tree.’ Oh, well. At least they tasted good. Nothing to see here as far as cookie pics. Didn’t think of it and probably didn’t want to remember the oddly shaped, albeit, yet yummy tasting cookies.

Once all the kids left I made some yummy potato soup with onions, garlic, dill and fennel. So yum! Totally off topic but so enjoyable! Then we Skyped with Nanna and Pappa. When I asked the boys during dinner what their favourite thing about this year was so far they said, ‘visiting Nanna and Pappa. And Cheeky Monkey.’ I can’t argue there. Our visit to see Mom and Gary was awesome as always. The boys love seeing them and their friends and going to play at Cheeky Monkey, the coolest indoor playground even for adults with some kid in them. Rocket slide, you are one crazy fast piece of plastic! Eek!

Suddenly it was 6:30 and we all jumped in the car to  drive around and check out Christmas lights. Xander said he counted more than two hundred houses with lights. It was fun to see how people decorate their homes. The glow of the lights just really gets me in the mood for the holidays. Of course, the street that we found with the most houses decorated was just 5 minutes from us. Our street was pitiful. That includes us. The plug to our house is in the driveway so not in a convenient spot at all when it’s late at night and very cold outside and you need to unplug the lights. I know, we should get one of those extension cords with a switch. I know. We said that last year too…

We got home, and helped the boys get ready for bed and Steve and Lucas read, “The Night Before Christmas” and off they went into ‘Christmas dreamland’. I usually say to them as I kiss them goodnight, “Sweet dreams come true”. This time, after I made this wish to the boys, Xander said, “Sweet Christmas dreams come true”. Indeed…which leads me to the next part – gift wrapping…

Santa, as always, dropped off gifts and I took a quick pic of the wrapping. Always impressed I’m with Santa’s wrapping ways. I still wonder what his hand-writing looks like because he always uses these cute little tags. Hmmm…I guess these days, with computers and all, and so many gifts to deliver, the time it takes to print out a tag is much less than writing. What a hand-cramp that would be. Carpel tunnel anyone?

…and like we told the boys, Santa can’t get you everything on your list as he has so many children to deliver gifts to. Well, Santa is good. He got them one thing on their list and a couple ones that they had forgotten to mention when they made their lists with Daddy last night while I was at work. Boy, that Santa, he is fast. He can even do last-minute requests! Xander decided to place his list on the tree so it wouldn’t be missed by Santa. He used a magnet from our dart game. Works perfect with a fake tree. Lucas’ list is in the next best place, the refrigerator door.

I was surprised to see Lucas’ list much shorter than Xander’s. Then again, I think this was a ‘carry over’ from his birthday list. He totally scored on that one.

Steve and I managed to wrap a few gifts from us. I decided to do something a little different for the tags. Maybe I was inspired by Santa’s savvyness. Or, maybe I saw something like this online. That Martha sure is crafty!

Now here I am with my glass of wine, the gifts are under three tree, stockings stuffed and I am pooped.

Merry Christmas, everyone. Love you all!

xoxoxo Us

Good night and Sweet Christmas dreams come true.

~smile~