Christmas is in the Air! And on the Countertops! And the Back Porch!

 Saturday afternoon, there was this huge block of time where nobody had anywhere to be.  I got all Christmas-y and thought, "Let's see how many Christmas activities we can do before 5:00!"  Tha'ts just how my personality works.  I can't just say, "Oh, an afternoon off.  We could watch a movie and eat some popcorn."  So first, we went to Bowman's to buy gingerbread house decorations and see Santa Claus while Freestone was at his dress rehearsal for the Stake children's choir and Ruby was at ballet and Golda was taking the ACT.  Did I say we had NOTHING to do?  I meant ALMOST nothing.

Santa said, "Ho ho ho!"  Tizzy said, "No no no!"

Ptolemy looks a tad uncomfortable.  He did manage to ask Santa Claus for something, though.  Something Scott and I have never heard of.  Something that wasn't on his list two days ago.

 A far cry from when Xanthe was two and head-butted Santa Claus before falling on the floor screaming.  She was pretty confident this time!

 The (almost) whole family!

 I also wanted to swing by a new boutique in Kaysville, To Market.  Saturday was their grand opening, so we wanted to support them.  If a tacky lingerie store can stay open on Main Street, surely we can keep this beautiful shop in business!  Turns out it is owned by an old neighbor of ours, Holly Perry.  I bought a Christmas gift for Scott, and later he stopped in and got something for me.  Fun!  We never get each other Christmas gifts, so it's fun to have those two nicely wrapped items, um, sitting on a cabinet because the Christmas tree is outside.  But that's beside the point.

 Next up on the Twelve Manic Activities of Christmas, my true loves made gingerbread while Scott took Golda shopping for new shoes for the Christmas dance that night.  He asked me why she didn't do this sooner.  Ha ha.  It's one day at a time here, folks.

 Yes, I know we're supposed to make gingerbread houses a two-day event, gluing them together the night before.  However.  We didn't.  I cut out walls and roofs while the kids cut out tiny cookies.

Ruby used Royal icing and a hair dryer and I used a hot glue gun to build the houses.  None of it worked, especially on the roofs.  I think the ingredient we were missing was patience.  I had to invent the word "Bethlehemmy" to justify the existence of these rustic, flat-roofed hovels.

 Because the house wasn't messy enough before.

 Ruby was determined that her royal icing would beat out my glue gun.  When the hair dryer didn't work, she resorted to a creme brulee torch, at which point her house and the plate in was on started on fire and burned down.

I win.

 Angel?  Butterfly? Delicious!

 Freestone

 Ruby eked out a one-dimensional Mexican adobe party house.

 Ari's creation was a work of art, complete with a manger scene and angels on the roof.  Bethlehemmy, indeed!

 Xanthe:  layer upon layer of fun.

 Ptolemy was pretty good at this gingerbread thing!

 Scott was the "judge."  He came up with a category for each kid to win because we can't have losers in this day and age, now can we?  Besides, I think all the houses turned out rather fabulous, just like their architects!

And then later, we finally got around to watching a movie.  At least some of us did, while Scott and I went out to dinner and Golda went to the Christmas dance...