Christmas Preparations

[przed]

We've spent the last two weekends getting ready for the holidays. All of which has brought home to me how much Ros is growing up.

Last week we put up the tree, and Ros helped decorate it. The last two years, Ros "helping" has meant I did damage control and made sure she didn't break anything, she put a bunch of decorations all in the same place, and then I did the whole tree after she got bored and wandered off to do something more interesting.

Not this year. This year she paid attention to what I told her about how we needed to decorate (unbreakable stuff the cat can't hurt at the bottom, heavy or delicate stuff at the top), then did most of it herself. She sorted all the decorations, hung them at the appropriate height, and got a chair when she couldn't reach a branch. It was awesome!

This weekend it was the baking weekend, and she proved herself able with the baking end of things too. She helped chop up dates and maraschino cherries for the fruit cookies, proved better than the Sweetie at mixing up icing, and helped with the rolling out of gingerbread.

I couldn't resist taking pictures of the gingerbread making today.



I think she started with the eye rolling last year, but this is the first time I've caught it on film. It's usually accompanied by an exasperated "Oh, Mom!" (The teen years are going to be interesting. *g*)


Ros preparing to attack the gingerbread!


Attack commenced!




Most of the baking has turned out well this year, with the exception of the gingerbread. We've unanimously decided that molasses is not the favourite flavour of anyone in our household. After working with the dough for ages, I think I've pretty much had enough.

Comments

[nsandik.livejournal.com]

By the way, if you want to attempt an edible Christmas house, make your walls out of sugar cookie. The same recipes that roll out for cookie cutting will also make squares and rectangles big enough to use for walls, etc. And one of my fondest family memories was the year we made a decorated cookie house. Probably memorable to me because my brother was home and frankly, he and I did the house with some assistance from his wife. No wonder I love that memory!

[przed.livejournal.com]

We made our sugar cookies yesterday, though the resulting cookies are fragile enough that I'd be terrified of trying to build a house out of the same material. Still, it might be worth a try next year.