Well, yesterday we took the little ones to see Santa. I will post about that by itself. We also shopped a bit, had dinner and got home very late. So I was really enjoying a day home to bake. I had made two doughs the other day and they were chilling. The first cookie I made was PB & J Thumbprints. but I only managed to get a dozen and a half into the freezer, they were so good. Next, I made my spritz dough and made several dozen and got just about everyone in the freezer because I worked fast! Then I wrapped a ton of presents while the babies napped. Got another burst of inspiration and took out my chilled gingerbread dough and cut out some men, women and children. I have them decorated and cooling completely and they will be packed away in the freezer as well. The other night I made the two sheet cake layers for Luke’s birthday cake and I made cupcakes. I froze them all to decorate on the eve of the 23rd. So a pretty good day for baking and wrapping. Christmas is coming up on us so fast, I cannot believe it. Well, I better get those Gingerpersons in the freezer before they get eaten. Hope everyone is getting everything they need to do done and not getting stressed out and forgetting the reason for the season.
Tag Archives: gingerbread
Gingerbread Perfection!!!
Today the little boys had such a fun time decorating the gingerbread house. Like I said in my previous post, I did not go into it with any expectations of perfection. I set up the island with various small bowls and containers with different colored candies. I put the assembled gingerbread frame house in the middle. Made some fresh royal icing in the VitaMix and put it into a piping bag. We put the boys high chairs up to the island and they were at a perfect height to get started. I started piping the icing but Ethan soon took over and you know what??? I did not sweat it. It went very well, he loved piping the icing, he had a few of his own techniques but you know, it worked. The roof got the most decorations and that was just fine. He and Luke had a good system. Ethan would put some icing on and tell Luke to stick the candy. Ethan said he was “working” it was very funny and they had a great time and despite the sugar rush they both took a very good nap afterward. When I look at the completed house with all its splendor, that is when it occurs to me, it is definitely perfection!!!
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Gingerbread Dreams, Sugarplum Wishes!!!
Well, as I type my fingers are still sticky with royal icing. I just finished assembling the cottage structure of the gingerbread house, so that tomorrow it will be nice and sturdy for little hands to decorate with a multitude of colored, sweet and tangy candies. I am not going in with expectations of a perfectly decorated gingerbread cottage that would grace the pages of “Good Housekeeping.” I am well aware that with having 1 and 3-year-old designers, perfection is not what we are going for. We will be going for perfectly imperfect. I imagine between the sugar rush and their little fingers that the finished product will be lucky to come away with all four walls and the roof still attached. I want to create the memories my children will carry with them as they grow and one day have their own families. I think those things are so much more important than material things. So late at night I fumble with the piping bags of sticky icing and mutter under my breath as it takes me a few tries to get the structure standing. Tomorrow I will be whipping up another batch of the sticky stuff to use as glue for the decorations.
Visions of chubby little hands sneaking tastes of the sticky sweet stuff and thinking that it is the greatest thing in the world to be decorating with the vast array of treats. I am sure they will be in Gum Drop Heaven, with all the colors and textures and tastes. It will be a lot of messy fun and I am looking forward to capturing their little faces on camera. Those are the memories I want to keep long after the cookie house has crumbled away. I love seeing the joy of the season through little eyes just discovering things for the first time. To see the wonder and the amazement of the season in their faces is so incredible. I am so blessed to be able to go through this again as my it just goes by in a blink as I know with my older kids. God was so great to have blessed me with the opportunity to experience it again. I am so very grateful.
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