Gingerbread Houses

Grocery shopping these days is a huge pain.  The grocery store I go to (the affordable one) is not close to our house and Costco (also not close) doesn't open until 10am.  I try to only go shopping one day a week 'cause it interferes with my workout and home responsibilities.  For the first few weeks of December the grocery stores were sold out of molasses - a key ingredient in gingerbread houses.  I checked for a few weeks and then got tired of waiting and ordered the molasses online through Walmart.com (free 2 day shipping).  I waited two days but the molasses didn't come and didn't come.  After about 2 weeks I was notified that the molasses was being returned to sender.  I think it might have broken in transit.  After hearing this I gave in and went to a different store on a non-shopping day and paid a lot more for molasses than I could have but I finally got it.  I tell you all that because the missing molasses put me way behind in making our gingerbread houses this year.  I finally got it the last week of school before the break and there were a bunch of different kid activities going on that week.  After the kids went to bed I baked and baked gingerbread house pieces and one night we found time to assemble and decorate the houses.  I wanted to make the houses and I like doing it but I wish I had gotten an earlier start on it.  Next year I'll stock up on molasses before Halloween.

House pieces for five gingerbread houses.

I made two batches of royal icing.  The first batch I used just to assemble the houses.  Then I let them harden a few hours.  I made up another batch later for decorating.  I had been collecting candies to decorate with.  Usually we have cinnamon Santas, red hots, Christmas M&Ms, gum drops, small candy canes, hard candy, gummy bears, sometimes lifesavers and usually something colorful like spree or skittles.

I think everyone had fun making their houses

And eating a few candies along the way

Here are a bunch more pictures

I'm glad we found time in the busy December schedule to get these done.  Matthew was at a Pinewood Derby workshop for scouts for most of the time we decorated, so he got to decorate all on his own once he got home.

The Oakland Temple

We headed up to the Oakland Temple this past weekend to see the Nutcracker.  The Oakland Temple has a big auditorium on the temple grounds and they have a lot of Christmas performances in there.  I tried to get Nutcracker tickets there earlier in the month but they were sold out.  I was sad I missed it, especially since the performance is free.  I checked again a few days ago and more tickets had become available so I snatched some up.  It took us about an hour and a half to get up to Oakland (75 miles away).  Oakland is our assigned temple and its closing in the new year for some refurbishment.

Inside the auditorium.  I told the kids I would let them pick something from the dollar store if they didn't tell me things like "I'm bored" or "when will this be over?" loudly during the show.  Matthew and Anna did great.  I think they are old enough to really enjoy the show now.  Grant tried hard and didn't tell me any of those things but I could tell he was getting restless.  John and Emma had a hard time and did ask me those things loudly during the show.  They tried to be quiet when I asked them to.  

Waiting for the show to start.

During intermission I took the kids right outside and gave them treats from my purse and let them run around to get some wiggles out.  Then we went back in for the second act.  The show was lovely.  It was performed by a local youth ballet company and the music was recorded, not live, but it was still nice.

After the show in the lobby.

It was just getting dark when we left the auditorium.

From the temple ground there is a nice view of the bay.

My mom lived in Fremont (nearby) when this temple was built.  She said the first palm trees they put in did not do well and died.  These ones look like they are doing good.

If you look really hard you can see the bay in the upper right of this picture.  Great views!

A short time after the show ended the temple Christmas lights came on.

We popped into the visitor's center for a few minutes.  Some kids were playing with these nativity dolls.  My mom made a set very similar to this that I loved to play with when I was a kid.  At first I wondered if they were hers and had somehow made their way here but they have different clothes - I think either my brother or sister have the other dolls.  The kids at the visitor center were having a ball playing with them.  I thought I had better not try to steal them away in my purse.  :)

It was fun to visit the temple and I'm glad we got to see the Nutcracker.  Such beautiful music.  The drive home from Oakland was painful and long.  The freeways were all backed up (this was on a Saturday night) so we took side streets all the way to San Jose.  It took a while.  But worth it.

Christmas Tree Ready!!

Well, the pumpkin pie has been eaten, Black Friday has come and gone, Thanksgiving is but a distant memory now, so we better get going on this Christmas thing.  Last weekend we made the trip to a local Christmas tree farm to get our Christmas tree.  The kids all helped find the just right tree.  Here they are near a tree Grant liked.  We didn't get this one, which made Grant pretty sad.

Posing as snowmen and women

Another favorite tree.  

So many to choose from.

I was there too

I found a tree I liked for its beautiful symmetry but we ended up going with Scott's choice.

And here is the winning tree.  It looks like it has two peaks at the top but that's just the tree behind it.  :). We were told this is a Monterey Pine.

Scott and Matthew getting ready to cut the tree down.

Grant was distraught that we didn't pick his tree and missed out on tree cutting.  Then he was sad about that too.  Here he is giving his favorite tree a snowman arm.  This must have been before he realized we weren't getting his tree.

The kids enjoyed watching the tree get shaken and netted.

The little three went on a a train ride with me while the two older kids helped Scott get the tree on the car.  Here's Grant with his snowman arm.  Grant is a collector of sticks, rocks, acorns etc.  He comes home with new goodies pretty frequently.  He might be saving this stick for a real snowman.  The little ones have started asking me again when its going to snow.  Guess they don't remember it doesn't snow here.

 Emma on the train ride.

Look at all those baby Christmas trees.  We got a tree at this farm last year and also just before Matthew was born.  We realized the tree we bought last year (and this year) would have been planted right around the time we bought the tree here ten(ish) years ago.  Crazy!!

The tree was just the right size.  Scott opted for colorful Christmas lights this year.

The kids all helped with decorations.

Anna helped me get the non-tree decor up.

These pine branches aren't that stiff so some heavier ornaments had trouble staying on.

Matthew got to put the star on this year.  We think it will be Anna's turn next year, etc.

 Matthew is too short to reach on his own but almost too big to lift up.

He got that star on though.

And TA-DA!!  The house is decorated for Christmas.  Scott put up our outdoor Christmas lights a few days later.

There's our tree expert.

I was there too.  I am enjoying the house being decorated and all the Christmas music.

I mentioned last year that I have had this tree topper since before Scott and I got married.  Obviously I liked it at one time when I bought it (probably 16 or 17 years ago) but now I hate it.  And we finally replaced it with a new tree topper last year.  But I forgot to get rid of it, and found it again in the Christmas boxes this year.  I put it out on a pile of stuff to donate in the garage and Emma found it...and adopted it.  She has been carrying it all over the house with her...and occasionally catching her fingers in the wires or stepping on it and getting hurt.  Ahh!  I keep trying to secretly put it out to be donated (hiding it in a bag or under something) and she keeps finding it and bringing it back in to carry around.  This tree topper is truly the thing that wouldn't leave!  Or maybe it just really wants to be a part of our Christmas.  I might have to wait until after the holidays to get rid of it.

Man vs. Mouse

When we got back from our Thanksgiving trip to Utah I discovered we had a mouse problem.  I had been cleaning out some things in the garage and started to find evidence of a mouse...or maybe multiple mice.   I cleaned everything up (there had been some bags of snacks left in the garage and they got into some other food we had on the shelves out there) and Scott bought some mouse traps.  He baited them with peanut butter (which has been successful bait for us before in Colorado) and set them all out.

The next morning I went out to the garage before school, checked all the traps (no mice), then got a few things out of the fridge.  As I was pulling milk out of the garage fridge I heard one of the traps snap!!!  It snapped WHLIE I WAS STANDING THERE!!!  I went over to look and there was a little mouse next to the sprung trap.  It didn't get caught in the trap but was bleeding.  It was hiding behind some things so I tried to move stuff so I could shoo it out of the garage, but it ran away...further into the garage.  I checked all the traps a little closer and noticed that they were all licked clean.  The mouse had licked the peanut butter off and only tripped one trap...which didn't even catch him.  I was a bit rattled - hearing the trap snap and seeing the bleeding mouse was unpleasant (in my head I was screaming myself hoarse) - but took the kids to school and came home, went on a run and then rebaited all the traps with more peanut butter.  

Before I went back in the house I was cleaning some things up in the garage for a few minutes, then went back to look at the traps one last time.  One of the traps had been licked clean WHILE I WAS STANDING THERE in the garage!!  I could not believe the brazenness of that mouse.  So cheeky!  I put more peanut butter on the trap and went in.  

In the afternoon, after getting the kids I checked again and we finally caught the little guy in one of the traps.  I was glad the trap worked because I was starting to feel like we were just feeding him peanut butter.  

Scott cleaned everything up when he got home from work (got rid of the dead mouse - THANK YOU SCOTT!!) and got a few more traps to put out in case there were others.  We were hoping it was only one mouse.  

We didn't catch anything the next day but we did notice that our traps were still getting licked clean during the day.  So there were other mice.  Gah!!

The mouse problem was really starting to wear on Scott.  He felt uncomfortable and unsettled about our unwelcome garage guests.  And understandably so.  

Sunday before church (a few days after we caught the mouse) I was out in the garage and distinctly heard some rustling around on one of the shelves.  I called Scott for back up and we started moving stuff around and sure enough, a little gray mouse made a run for it.  We tried to catch him or shoo him out but he was too fast and did not want to leave the garage.  There are a lot of hawks outside in our neighborhood after all so I'm sure his odds are better inside.  So we rebaited all the traps (which had been licked clean again) with more peanut butter, moved some of them to where we had seen the mouse and got ready for church.  Just before leaving for church we found one mouse caught in a trap.  After church we came home to two more caught in a trap.  Scott got rid of the dead mice and brought  home more traps the next day.  I know he will not rest easy until they are all gone.  No mice in the garage!!

Later in the day we caught one more mouse in a trap, bringing our grand total to FIVE MICE!!  The good news is, aside from the fact that we caught those mice, that the traps (of which there are MANY in the garage now) are not getting licked clean as much anymore.  So we hope that means we are winning the war against the mice.  If only slowly.

Part of our "shock and awe" mouse trap arsenal.

Four different kinds of traps.  We ended up with 20 traps set out in the garage, and that's not counting the traps that caught mice and were disposed of.

By Monday (a week or so after getting back from Thanksgiving) we had a full mouse trap arsenal in the garage.  Multiple kinds of traps in multiple locations.  Every few hours I would go check all the traps - half hoping there was nothing there, half hoping there was.   It was kind of horrible.

Monday we caught three more mice, bringing the grand total to EIGHT MICE!!

We got a few more traps and set them out again all baited with peanut butter.  We haven't caught any mice or seen any new evidence of mice since Monday, so we're claiming a tentative victory although all the traps are still in place just in case.  Thank you Scott for disposing of all the dead mice.  I could do it.  If he wasn't here or wasn't willing I definitely would do it but I don't object to his offer of mouse disposal.  

Next step will be to better seal up the little gaps on the garage door where I assume they were getting in.

All week I've had the Elvis song Suspicious Minds in my head ("We're caught in a trap, I can't walk out...").  Here's hoping we have no more mice friends come to stay with us.