Christmas Eve Gingerbread houses and letters to Santa

One of our Christmas traditions is making gingerbread houses but this year I wanted to make the dough from scratch instead of buying a kit; something I have wanted to do for years. We made the dough yesterday so it was already to roll and cut out. As I made the house pieces (as I didn't have a pattern), the girls worked on the cookies.

Then into the oven everything went to bake... When it was cooled we put the house together with Royal Icing.

 And began covering it with candies.

 Then we decorated a couple cookies for Santa.

 The girls opened their Christmas Eve jammies (and yeah Sierra takes off her favourite shirt so I can wash it!!!).

 And got one pic infront of our gingerbread house...

 before we watched it collapse before our eyes :(

 I guess there was a reason the recipe was made for small houses...I just assumed if I doubled the recipe we could make one family house instead of small individual houses. Next year we will make small houses for a village or...buy a kit again!

Time to write Santa a letter...(such serious business) and hop into bed.

 Merry Christmas Santa...I hope you enjoy your treats.

The week before Christmas review

Time is flying and I can`t believe tomorrow is Christmas eve!

Every year we make home made sausage rolls...a recipe that my husbands dad would make every year when he was little. Usually we have all the family over to make them together but this year was sort of odd with everyone being sick at different times. Luckily our girls are just getting over it in time for Christmas.

The girls got invited to a friends house so they went there instead of helping with the sausage rolls as they were so excited to see them. Sierra said, "I would like to make sausage rolls but I haven't seen SiSi (another Sierra) and Dakota in a looonnngggggg time so is it OK if we go"? We couldn't possibly say no :) SiSi was in Sierras class and Dakota in Aaylas last year when they were in school and all are great friends. I even missed most of the making and bakingthis year as I ran to the store for a couple of things and it ended up taking me over 2 hours! Daddy saved a bit though so Sierra could make a few rolls herself when she got home.

Ian's brother Mark and his boys came over and stayed to play Stone Age. Click HERE for the run down on the game. We like it alot :)

 Elfie has been busy as well...

He covered our bathroom mirror in bows

then hid in the medicine cabinet

Sierra and Aayla both had fun playing with the bows.

How is that for a cheeky monkey pose!

He hid in a stocking...I guess he was letting us know Santa would soon be here.

 He had a campfire and roasted marshmallows over a candle with some friends.

 He used one of the girls wreaths as a trapeze.

and he must be getting tired as we found him sleeping in one morning.

  Elfie even took the reindeer and sleigh out for a practice run.

The girls have both been sick this week but we have been playing lots of games. Sierra is learning how to play chess with daddy.

 We have played lots of monopoly and more games of UNO then i could possibly count!

Sierra and I went to see Frozen in 3D with uncle Mark and her cousins.

The girls built all kinds of interesting sculptures with our rainbow blocks

We made home made gingerbread for our gingerbread houses tomorrow (yes Sierra wears this shirt multiple days in a row...it`s her favourite).

 Sierra loves to smell the vanilla...

 Thanks to Nana Diana we have this wonderful mixer.

Making gingerbread houses from scratch has been on my todo list for a couple years...finally we get to try tomorrow.

Our Elf on the Shelf's adventures and recap of our past week

Here's a recap of odds n ends we've been up to this past week and a half...as well as our elf on the shelf's adventures.

Got caught sneaking a gumball

Reindeer joyriding

Checking in with Mr Toad

Having a stroller ride with Santa gnome

in the middle of a good read...Hold onto your kids by Gordon Neufeld

he made an enjoyed a little swing

Toilet papered the tree!!!

View of the full toilet papered tree.

He hid in the tree sitting on Santas knee

He played a game of angry birds

He's been busy and sometimes up to no good! Sierra was hoping he'd toilet paper our tree again and he got us good! It's her favourite every year.

Other things we've been up to this week...

Aaylas been practicing her ABC printing and trying to build up her pincer grip. She come a long way in the past couple weeks.

 Aayla did some number ordering and cutting practice while Sierra worked on Christmas word syllables.

 We made snack necklaces and chocolate covered popcorn for a movie night.

 We made Christmas tree waffles together for supper and had a picnic under the Christmas tree.

 We baked cookies at a friends house and set up all his lego people in I Spy games.

 We made reindeer icecream cones for dessert one night.

Aayla practiced wrapping presents with already wrapped presents from under the tree.

 Then she moved onto making forts with the rest of the wrapping paper roll.

We've also been busy playing in the snow, playing petshops and lots of games. And we've been very busy making our Christmas gifts but you'll have to wait until after Christmas to see those :)