What a special afternoon I had Saturday, when I headed out to Lindee’s, and she and the girls, Addie and June, and Lin’s dear friend Jenny and her daughter and friend, Keira and Rachel, spent the entire afternoon baking and decorating Christmas cookies.  Everyone brought a recipe and all the ingredients, and we had a ball working and talking and laughing and sampling, as well as eating the snacks everyone brought to share.  I think this will definitely become an annual tradition :-).  Here are Clara, Keira and Rachel shaping their candy cane cookies, which were my contribution to the event.

Mallory, June and Clara decorating sugar cookies – always a highlight.

Last Thursday night was the Bethany Elementary Christmas Choir program, and the kids did such a good job.  That’s Clara right in the middle with the long blonde hair, and one of her besties, Sophie, next to her with the pony tail.

Afterwards with her proud supporters – front is Emmy, Clara, and Mal. Back in Jeff, Lindee and Jackson. We were all so proud!

What a special night we had Wednesday, when the children finally put on their Christmas pageant at church.  I got this picture of the cast before they took the stage.

And our sheep and star afterwards, beside the Bethlehem mural in the Sunday School wing.

Sunday morning during the 11:00 service some of the kids who are going to be involved in the Christmas pageant Wednesday evening sang and invited the congregation to come out for the celebration. They did a good job!

Saturday Lindee, Mallory, Clara, and I headed to Asheville to visit the Grove Park Inn and the National Gingerbread House competition.  We also went last year, and it was just so much fun we had to go back.  This year, though, we had the added bonus of traveling there through one of the biggest snows they’ve had in Asheville in years.  We didn’t have any snow, but we ran into it maybe thirty miles down the road, and the drive was just beautiful.  Luckily the roads were clear, so we could just enjoy the scenery.  We played in the snow a little bit when we stopped to take a break at the NC Welcome Center

One of the fun things about the day is not just enjoying the gingerbread sculptures, but also the hotel itself, which is beautiful and historical. There was an antique scale in the hallway that we showed Mallory how to use.

The gingerbread sculptures were amazing, just like they were last year. This year, with June getting so into baking, we were especially interested in the entries in the Youth Category. I thought this one that made it in the Top Ten was so cute.  I had to constantly keep reminded myself that every single thing on top of the base was edible.  Pretty impressive.

Clara loved it, too!

We made our first Christmas crafts of the season last week – painting glitter on Christmas light bulbs.  It was a hit.

I’d been meaning for months to stop and get Clara’s picture with the spirit rock in front on her school, and last week we finally made that happen 🙂

Last weekend while I was out of town Jeff got our outside lights put up.  For his birthday this year I got him a projection light, so we’re giving it a try without him having to get up on the ladder and hang all the icicle lights from the gutters, which is pretty scary on the really high sides of the house.  They don’t show up great in the picture, but we think it’s really cool.  Plus the lights come through the windows and show up on the ceilings inside.  Very cool.