Christmas Time Is Here

It is official! Chris and I are on our winter breaks! Of course they actually started this past Friday, but not getting up at the crack of dawn this morning made it real for us. I wanted to share some things my class did on the last week of school and also some of the decorations we have up in our home.
Every year since I have taught third grade we have taken a day on the last week before the break to make a huge gingerbread house. It takes us the entire day, and the kids LOVE it. Then later in the week we donate it to a nursing home, hospital, or someplace where they can appreciate it over the holidays.

The kids all bring candy, I put them in groups, and then I assign them a part of the house to decorate. They then plan out what they are going to do. Here was the set up:
           

Lots and lots of candy, and yes it doesn't all go on the house. The kids get to eat some too! Here are some of my kiddos planning and working together. I was doing the icing as the kids talked and decorated, and some of the conversations that were happening were hilarious! I was trying to get my video camera to work but couldn't figure it out.  Kids are so funny. Here was one conversation that tickled me. "Hey guys, let's make sleds out of Laffy Taffy, and then use the gummy bears for people riding in the sled. " "Oh, that is a great idea!" Let's make a pond out of blue M&M's and then we can have people ice skating on it!" Ha!  Isn't that creative? You gotta love them!

One side of the roof completed!

Other side of the roof done and one side yard completed! As you can see we don't use real gingerbread, we just use cardboard. I think it makes it easier to decorate and for the candy to stick.

The completed house! It is so fun to see how it turns out each year. This year my class is a little rambunctious, so the house reflects that some. Oh well, the kids are always so proud of their creation and that is what it is all about!

In other decorations, here are some we have in our own home. We don't have a lot this year, but here is what we do have:

Dining room centerpiece.

Garland on the dining room window. We decided not to get a tree this year but next year when we do we are going to put it in here in front of the window!

I know this is a bad picture but here are some lights on our front porch outside.

And this is our solution for how to display our Christmas cards this year. Next year I plan to get a small metal tomato tree to put them on, but we thought it was a fun and different way to display them. Now, we can look at them everyday this way!

Lastly, I had to share this! This year Chris doesn't have an actual class so he didn't get any gifts. Yes, that is right, no super funny ones to write about this year. Boo! But, a teacher at his school did give him this and I laughed out loud when he showed me. It even has little plastic pieces of coal in it. I think this will be in Coco's stocking this year! I hope you all have a wonderful holiday!
Love, Carrie

Lights In The Heights

Well, once again we seem to have fallen off the blog wagon. We had some issues with our site, but I think Chris has worked them all out. So, I wanted to update you on some fun things we have been up to. This past weekend we headed to Houston to visit my sister and brother in law. They live in an area called the Heights and every year their neighborhood has a big holiday festival called Lights in the Heights. They have begged us to come for years, but with the all of the other things going on this time of the year we have never been able to make it. However, this year we made a point to be there and so did my parents! In addition, our cousin Karen was in the states visiting from the UK so she got to celebrate with us as well. It was so fun! Friday night we went to my uncle's house to celebrate the first night of Hanukkah.  We had a wonderful dinner and played the traditional Dreidel game. We had a great time!       

Our good family friend Barbara, my sister Claire, mom, and me.

Cousin Karen and I playing the dreidel game.

The next day we helped my sister Claire and her husband William get ready for the big neighborhood party. Everyone in the neighborhood decorates and hosts parties, but the main event is on two of the neighborhood streets. Almost every house has spectacular lights, and many porches and front yards had bands or performers that do shows all night. They also have a parade and food stands. This year the mayor was even in the parade! So hundreds of people from all over came to walk the streets and see the homes and shows. Claire and William's house was not one of the homes on the main drag, but they still have a large party every year where everyone comes and hangs out, and then everyone goes walking the neighborhood streets!

Here was the set up for our party guests. Claire had a ton of funny reindeer antlers, elf hats, or as we called them, "Christmakuh" accessories for people to wear. We made two huge pots of chili using 13 pounds of meat, and also some latkes (potato pancakes). The theme of the party was to wear a funny sweater or outfit with a lot of holiday cheer ... Chris and I dressed up, and so did Claire and William, but not many other people did. Oh well, it was still fun!

My lovely holiday vest and my mistletoe headband! 

William's elf costume. He was also setting up a fire pit in the driveway.

The house, before the guests arrived.

 

When the party started, William's sister and mom arrived with the newest additions to our family, Emily's 4-month-old twin girls! They are precious and were decked out in their Christmas outfits. Everyone was smitten!

The guests enjoying the fire.

Claire kept telling us that the event was kind of like Mardi Gras. She kept stressing the importance of taking a map with us when we walked the route because we could easily get lost in the crowd. It was so hard to believe her until we saw it with our own eyes. There were hundreds and hundreds of people in the streets. It was so crazy! She also kept saying their party was going to be fairly small this year compared to other years, but by the end of the night we figured at least 100 people had come and gone from their home. Every drop of food, including the two huge pots of chili, were gone! We later found out that William had invited a lot of people and forgot to mention that little tidbit to Claire. Ha! Oh well! The more the merrier!

Here are some of the homes on the tour. Chris took a million pictures, so these are just a few. However, you can get a good idea of what the homes looked like and the fun events every house had.

        

 

 

One house had this on their lawn! We took a pretend prom picture in our funny sweaters! In the second pic is my good friend Muffy and her husband, Chris, who also live in Houston. We invited them along as well and it was so fun hanging out with them at the party. 

I hope you get the idea of all the festivities. We had a super time and if you ever are in Houston when Lights in the Heights is happening, you should go! Now Chris and I are wondering how we could get something like this started in our own neighborhood ... maybe next year!

Love, Carrie