Monday, December 8, 2008

Cookies, a Winter sandbox, and our own Grinch

Our Christmas season has officially begun. My mom invited us over to her house to decorate sugar cookies, spread some Christmas cheer, attend the Bountiful light parade and eat chili on Friday night. It was a fun time to be had, and the girls loved getting such a sugar high. Unfortunately Andrew missed all the festivities as he was at work, so we ate plenty for him. Here we are at the parade...
Then on Saturday I stole an idea off a friend's blog about using brown sugar as a sandpile to stave off the Winter cabin fever. (Thanks, Sarah!) Lily absolutely LOVED doing this. I found a 2 lbs. bag of brown sugar for 88 cents, and it was the best money I ever spent on an activity. After loading up a cookie sheet with lots of sugar and arming Lily with different kinds of containers to dig and pack and form, she was happy as a clam (or maybe I should say crab).



To end the weekend, I literally felt like the grinch (not by choice but by circumstance) when I discovered that part of the lights on my new pre-lit tree had gone out late last night. Well, I wasn't about to have a tree with a non-lit section, so I had to de-decorate my tree and take it all the way down, putting it back in the packing box and loading it in the car for a return/exchange this morning. The whole time I'm thinking, 'wouldn't it be fitting if Lily were to come downstairs (with visions of sugar plums dancing in her head) and ask, "Why Mommy, why are you taking our Christmas tree?" To which I would have to reply, "There's a light that's broken, so you see, I must take it back to the north pole (or Tai Pan) and fix it (or get a new one)'.

Let me tell you, during my hours of undecorating and taking the tree down I was not a happy camper. I like the decorations once they're up, but I've never liked having to take all my Christmas stuff down when the season is over. And I can most assuredly say that I REALLY don't like having to put up a tree, decorate/undecorate, take it down, get a new one the next day, put THAT one up and decorate again. But I do have to say that it looks even better than the first and is worth it to have ALL the lights in working order.

Let's bring on the Season!

3 comments:

Sarah said...

Your holidays have certainly started! Looks like you've had a bit of everything in a short time: sugar in frosting/sugar in castle form...light show/light's out...crab/clam...grinch! (Hehe great writing)

Glad that the indoor "sand" was a hit. Sorry that the prelit, no mess tree was a bummer.

heath said...

That "sandbox" is such a great idea. Heck, I'll have to do it sometime when I'm bored!

J + A Humphreys said...

I have never heard of that 'sandbox' idea. I think it would work wonders for a while...but then the disaster would strike, or James would just devour the whole thing. :) Bummer about the tree. We haven't put up a tree since we lived in Logan. No point really, every year we leave halfway through the month and don't come back until January. The light show sounds way fun. I love stuff like that. Are you still trying to sell your house??