Christmas with the Lindseys

Today we exchanged gifts and celebrated Christmas with my family.

And there was a ton of presents to open.

The girls were excited about their presents.

And the newest addition to the family.  A furry member.

It didn't take long to wear them out.

But sugar never fails to revive them.

Our lemon tree is feeling Christmas-y

After we finished all the handprint ornaments, Grace wanted to hang them on our tree.

Our lemon tree, that is.  It was feeling a big left out of the Christmas festivities.

So here some of our ornaments are.

Bright and festive.  We'll leave them hanging there until we have a chance to give them away.

Handprint Christmas ornaments

Today the girls made homemade Christmas ornaments.

Grace started by painting her hand white.

Then she put her handprint on a Christmas ball.

Next, Faith had her turn.

With my help, of course.

After the handprints dried, we turned them into snowmen!  Faith's had green scarves.

And Grace's had purple.  We made a set for us and for grandparents, too.  This is something that we'll have to do again next year so we can see how much Grace and Faith's hands grow over the next year.

Making a gingerbread village

This year we decided to make a gingerbread village instead of just one house.

I thought that both my girls would enjoy decorating their own little house.

But Faith was much more interested in eating the decorations that putting them on her house.

So Grace took over and iced all the tiny houses.

And Faith covered all the houses with the candy she didn't like - those itty bitty hard ball candy.

I think they're supposed to be sprinkles, but they were as hard as rocks.

The girls did an excellent job.

And David and I admired Faith and Grace's hard work before letting the kids dig in and enjoy.  As a side note, in my and David's opinion, store-bought gingerbread houses do not taste that great.  And the icing tastes like glue.  But Faith and Grace both seemed to love it. 

Making Christmas ornaments

Today Grace made some new Christmas ornaments for our tree

She painstakingly put colored beads in her tiny gingerbread man and Faith's little penguin.

And then I put them in the oven and jarred all the beads out of place.  So Grace and I spent another twenty minutes putting all the beads back in place so we could bake them.  These have been the hardest ornaments we've ever made together, but we'll always cherish them.