gearing up for Christmas

This is the first time we have been on our own for Christmas.  Cameron was scheduled to work Christmas morning  and we didn't figure that would go over well for traveling across the country.

we had fun as we prepared for Christmas.

We wrote letters to Santa,

put up the Christmas lights, 

 Katelyn was most excited about this and insisted on having everyone come outside and admire the lights every single night until they came down.

 that's dedication.

we decorated the tree.

katelyn had a great time hanging the ornaments as hight as she could, in fact  it was hard to convince her that it was ok to hang them low too.

hung the stockings with care,

 and then tried them on, that's what your suppose to do right?  just to make sure they qualify as real stockings... right?

and finally in honer of our friends the Patricks we made a ginger bread house,

this was their "house" last year. it's actually the school most of the kids go to.

ours came pretty close to that....

if you close one eye and squint the other... it is made of ginger bread and held together with frosting...  and that's where the similarities end...

we had a great time making it and that's what counts,  this was actually the very first gingerbread house I have ever made unless you count the ones you make with graham crackers... which we don't, because that would be a graham cracker house... of course.