gingerbread houses. 2013

I've been making gingerbread houses with kindergartners for years.  It has always one of my favorite, most exhausting activities of the year.  So a few years ago, I decided to bring the fun home and make them with the boys!

I've never used the kits, because you just can't buy 25 of those for an entire classroom.  And I learned a long time ago, that they are easy to decorate if you just put them together with hot glue.  No one actually eats them anyways, right?

But this year was my first attempt at them in India.  We don't have boxes of graham crackers or even a similar shaped cookie to work with.  So I thought, "how hard can it be?"  And the truth is... it wasn't very hard at all.  I threw some ingredients in a mixer, rolled out the dough, and baked them.  I did cut them into rectangles and poke little holes in them for fun, but, otherwise, they were a breeze!



After gluing together the frame and setting out the necessary ingredients, we were ready to get started.









We started by spreading icing on the roof.  They were so intense at the beginning!





And then "some people" got sidetracked on the task at hand!







Once we finished licking spreading the icing, we just needed to trim out the houses.







And then the REAL FUN began... the decorating!













Then "the sneaking of candy" started.



The "guilty" are always so easy to spot!





This time he had a new partner in crime!



All that sugar gave Jason just enough energy to make the creation of the day... a snowman out of icing!



And Max could not have been more proud!



In the end, we finished with two awfully tasty-looking gingerbread houses....





And two VERY happy little boys!





Merry Christmas!

five on friday.

1.  We leave for Thailand in two days!  Here's the plan... we are heading to the beach on Monday, staying through Christmas, and then heading to Bangkok to stay until the babies are born.  Their due date is March 10, but they'll most likely come a few weeks before.  After they are born, we will complete the necessary requirements to get them both an American passport and an Indian visa.  Once they have the paperwork needed, we will return to India!  So currently, we are thinking we will at least be in Thailand through the month of March- but it's all a guessing game right now.

2.  India has caused me to pull out my "Martha Stewart side" on more than one occasion, but this week, I set out to make homemade graham crackers.  The things we do for kids and for gingerbread houses!  Surely those little boys will repay me for it one day.  More of this to come next week!



3.  A sweet friend sent us two Christmas packages last week, and they included spray snow!  Good thing Jason was close by, because Max may have mistake it for canned whip cream!





Since we are leaving soon and busy packing up, we decided not to spray the windows.  Instead, we went on a walk and sprayed snow on everything we could find.  It's the little things...





When both cans were empty, Max said, "Could you tell "Marla" to send some more of that snow?"  Who knew spray snow could offer so much entertainment!  And our neighborhood plants are all decked out for the holidays!

4.   Last night, Max came into our room after midnight. Apparently he'd had a nightmare, and through tears, he "wanted Mama!"  This morning I woke up with a little boy beside me and a lump in my throat, because soon, that boy won't be the "baby" anymore.  I'm not sure if I'm ready to change his lineup in the family.

5.  As I embark on 29 weeks of pregnancy, I'm slowing down in a major way.  In an effort to enjoy sitting around, does anyone have any great book recommendations?  I foresee lots of sitting in my future weeks!

Five more days, people, until Christmas Day!  Hope everyone is enjoying this Christmas season!  As we say in India, "Happy Merry Christmas!"  

looking back on christmas.

(While looking through some old photos last week, I came across our Christmas pictures from last year.  And since they somehow never made it into a blog post, I thought I'd add them here!)





When I think back on our Christmases as a family, they are all so unique.  Some went exactly as planned, some were over the top, some less than minimal.  But all of them were memorable in their own way.





There was the year we brought Jack home from Ukraine.  We arrived at our house two days after Christmas and sweet friends from our church had a Christmas tree up and decorated for our new family!  A few years later, we were awaiting the adoption of Max.  And in an effort to keep life simple, we didn't even have a tree... just a stocking for Jack and his presents.  The year before we left America was the first year I got really serious about making traditions and memories with the boys.  That month was filled with advent stories, Gingerbread houses, crafts, and all things Christmas!





And then we moved to India.  The first year- let's face it- I was homesick.  I realized in December that I had not packed a single Christmas decoration.  And despite trying to make all things merry and bright, it was just hard!  I longed to sit at my mom's dining room table, admire my familiar Christmas decorations, and wait patiently on the sidewalk for the coming parade.  None of those things occurred, and my heart just struggled.





But last year was different.  It was time to get over the homesickness and make the best of being together as a family.  I realized you can make memories no matter where you find yourself, and it CAN be done without all the commercialization of American culture.  So we did it right.  We decorated everything!  And we didn't have one tree... we had TWO!  We had homemade apple cider, Christmas movies, and tons of other things that made it special for us!  And then the unexpected occurred.





Just three days before Christmas, Jason cut his hand pretty bad on an electric saw.  On Christmas Eve we tried to get him on a flight to see a more qualified doctor in Delhi, but the flight was cancelled.  The Christmas I had planned on was being ruined by guilt, worry, and the trauma of an accident!  But in true Marlin fashion, we pulled it together.  Jason helped lay out presents with one hand, still put batteries in all those toys, and even helped put together the Legos and race tracks!





The truth is that no Christmas will ever be the same.  The location will change, the company will change, and the circumstances will change.  But our purpose for celebrating can be steadfast.  After all the different scenarios we've experienced along the way, I've now determined that no matter where we are, who is with us, and what is going on around us, our focus will remain the same:

An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.  But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.  Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.  This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."  Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,  "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."

Luke 2:9-14

And this year will be no different from the others.  Our location will change once again.  While we await the birth of the new babies, we will travel to Thailand and spend our last Christmas as a family of four on the beach.  It'll be my first time to ever have my toes in sand on Christmas Day.  I'm already dreaming of opening presents with the boys as the waves crash in and savoring the moments when it was just the two of them.  And I pray that even amongst all the excitement of gifts, beaches, and beef, we rest in His story... and we find hope and joy for the coming year and what it may bring!  Merry Christmas!