“Christmas in July” would have been a great title for this post … if I had managed to write it last month. Couldn’t even get it together to do that. I’m currently operating under the delusion that I’m catching up in time for the fall craziness that happens in our household (Halloween, Maya’s birthday, Thanksgiving, Sean’s birthday, Ian’s birthday, Christmas).

Cookies!

Luckily, I remember it like it was yesterday (no, I don’t). Christmas 2016 included a few bouts of cookie baking and decorating. It’s one of my favorite things to do with the kids in the kitchen. They help me make the dough, cut the cookies, and then, once they’re baked, they help me ice them and top them with sprinkles. We have fun going to the bake shop to augment our supply of cookie toppings (and cutters) periodically. The kids’ faces and fingers take on interesting colors as they sneak tastes of sugar balls, rainbow sprinkles, and sanding sugar.

We tried out a gingerbread house building workshop at the Thinkery this past year. Our family of four built a single house, and it was all we could do to keep the kids from eating all the candy decorations! Lucky for us, structural gingerbread isn’t super delicious, and even if it was, the wise folks at the Thinkery left us scraps to nibble on. We managed to get our dessert-based domicile home in one piece, and I remember it more or less lasting through most of our holiday festivities.

Ian was more interested in eating candy than decorating the house.

We did make it down to see the light show at Mozart’s again. It was later in the year and more crowded than we’ve seen it in the past. We didn’t even manage to make it into the place this time, and just watched from the outside.

We got to host Christmas at our house for Sean’s family. There were stocking to dig into, gifts to open, lots of food to eat. Sean got to make a sherbet-based punch for the kids in a punch bowl that had been handed down to him from his maternal grandmother, Mamaw Sharp. I think that’s the first time we’ve ever gotten to use it. He also made a grownup punch for the rest of us that was as potent as it was drinkable. Happy holidays, indeed!

Lolli and Pop!

We traveled up to see my family after Christmas. Thanks to booking very early and being uncharacteristically lucky, we managed to book a direct flight! Also, no vomit!! Both our families are always generous to a fault, so the kids made out like bandits. They love visiting Grammy and Grandpa’s house anyway. So many toys, so much undivided attention, so much chocolate milk!

Grammy and Grandpa’s house!

One of Maya’s favorite gifts was a little polaroid-type camera. Sean loves photography, so it’s no surprise he wants to nurture Maya’s interest. She had been watching an Amazon show called Tumble Leaf, and in it one of the characters has a film camera. She kept telling us she wanted a “rip it off” camera. Welp, now she has one. The subjects she chooses are always … interesting. Sean shows her how, but she lines up her own shots and snaps her own photos. She has a little photo book that at this point is nearly full of some pretty random, often beautifully framed photos. (Maybe we’ll try and post some of those photos later.)

Ian still loves the fact that we put up a Christmas tree for his birthday.