Merry Christmas!

Morning Tea with the Perkins Family

Now that Cameron, Simone, & Flynn live in Dubai, we don't get to see them very often, but they are in town now for the Christmas holidays, and we had a wonderful visit with them this morning. Julia was a bit shy at first and Liam & Flynn had a brief tug-0-war over the dump truck, but overall the children played really well together, and we were able to catch up with our friends. After morning tea, all seven of us somehow ended up on the floor of Julia's room, and the kids were in heaven amidst the piles of blocks and blankets. We're looking forward to see them again in the new year for a trip to the Thomas the Train exhibit at the Ipswich Railway Museum (and hopefully a few more times before they head back overseas!).

How (Not) to Make a Gingerbread House

With exams over and Christmas rapidly approaching, I decided that we should do some Christmas baking and crafts to overcome the 100+ degree temperatures outside and get into the holiday spirit. I started off with something quick and easy-- Gourmet Rocky Road -- to take as an end-of-year gift for Julia's teachers (she had her last day of school on Thursday). I've never made rocky road and I don't even particularly like it, but this turned out really well and was a big hit at school and at our house (Matt has now requested a batch to take to the office next week). Fuelled by this holiday treat success, I decided that Julia and I could make a gingerbread house together (from scratch). The rocky road sugar high obviously had me a bit delusional, as I scoffed at the store-bought kits for $20 and proudly told Julia that Mommy could make one herself, and she could do all the decorating.

I'm not artistic, but I do consider myself somewhat crafty (enough to entertain my children at least). And I don't do fondant icing or anything, but I do own a piping bag, and I thought surely I could whip up a gingerbread house. So I pulled out my trusty Joy of Cooking to the pages (the fact that the instructions span 3 double-columned pages should have deterred me) and we got started (3 days ago). Here's how it went...

Day 1: Pour flour into bowl. Move canister of remaining flour out of Liam's reach. Add spices to bowl. Abort project with only dry ingredients mixed in order to clean flour off of Liam.

Day 2: (a.m.) Mix eggs, butter, sugar, vanilla, etc. Pick up screaming Liam (he was scared of the mixer). Attempt to add dry ingredients to butter mixture while holding Liam. Battle Liam for control of spoon. Lose battle (and half of my clean shirt) to Liam and the flour mixture. Next step, get Julia's hands out of the sugar ("Mmm...yummy, Mommy"). Abort project once dough mixed to clean off myself and the children and take Julia to school.

Day 2: (p.m.) Didn't have the called-for graph paper or spare manila folders, so cut out templates for house pieces (including a chimney!) with baking paper. Julia spent the whole time alternately asking, "What you doing, Mommy?" and "Why?". . . my answers to the latter rapidly digressed to something along the lines of, "Oh, just trying to emulate the housewife from a 1950's TV commercial, dear"

Day 3: (a.m.) Finally time to roll out the dough. Lacking the called-for 1/4" dowel rods to assess the evenness of the height of the dough. Decide to eyeball it. Realize that not having the 1/4" dowel rods is the least of my worries. Decide to skip next column of instructions pertaining to adding scalloped edges and clapboard siding and attempt repairs of gaping holes in cutouts instead. Put in oven to bake. Help Julia and Liam get dressed for the day. Race back to the kitchen after realizing I didn't actually set the timer. Rescue half-burnt roof pieces from oven and continue baking other pieces. Leave pieces to cool.

Chimney & door pieces

Day 3 (p.m.): No nap for Julia but Liam is sleeping. Now it's fatigue making me delusional as I beam proudly at the cooled dis-assembled pieces of the house and suggest to Julia that we'll just "whip up some icing" and get started decorating our creation. Turn now to page of instructions (only 2 columns this time) for Royal Icing. Get egg out of fridge. Get powdered sugar from pantry. Catch egg just as it rolls away from Julia's hand and off of the counter. Heat egg whites and some of the sugar for recommended 30 seconds then test heat to see if it's reached the optimum 160 degrees. Not there yet, return to microwave for recommended 30 seconds more. Test heat...180 degrees. Decide to ignore cookbook's warning that "it should not exceed 175 degrees". Finish making icing and place in piping bag. Pipe nice neat lines for "glue" as instructed and voila-- 4 sides of the house! Add roof pieces. Add roof pieces and hold. Add roof pieces and hold for longer. Abandon piping bag in favor of big free form globs of icing generously smashed into roof pieces for extra holding power. And we have a gingerbread house:

"Well done, Mommy!"
(my little cheerleader who has this whole time been eating icing as it falls off)

But about 15 seconds later...

"Here's money, Mommy. You go buy one."

We had a good laugh at the failed gingerbread house attempt, but as I started clearing up the dishes Julia's sugar high began to wear off and she was edging dangerously close to a total meltdown. When she's really tired, the best way to head off the tantrum is to ignore her, so I walked away to take sticky tea towels to the laundry room and was pleased to note that within about 2 minutes she had gotten quiet. I walked right back into the kitchen to find her sound asleep like this:

Talk about a sugar crash! I couldn't stop laughing! I wasn't game to move her though, so Liam and I played in the kitchen while she slept on the counter for almost an hour.

The Holidays Are Here-- Hooray!

I am now officially on holiday! I had my last exam this morning, and I think (fingers crossed) I finished on a high note for that class at least (let's hope the grades don't say otherwise). I may or may not get any extra sleep, but I'm looking forward to a break from studying and the 2-hour/day commute and some quality time with my family. Many catch-up posts to come...

Happy Holidays, Everyone!