Christmastime Houses

Lindsey and I made Gingerbread houses!  It was her first time ever to decorate a Gingerbread house and I think she did a fabulous job!  We had a great time decorating the houses while Cornbread and Michael Bacon watched some really bad silly movies.  We all ate way too much candy, and had delicious pizza from Filippi's Pizza Grotto.

I used the Elfin cottage pattern from my 1982 Wilton Celebrate!: Christmas book.  I had a batch of gingerbread in the freezer that was left from last year's house.  And I made one batch of the Grandma's gingerbread from my Wilton book.  They both baked up pretty well.  But cutting out the pieces and baking a gingerbread house from scratch is really hard work.  I miss my cast iron gingerbread mold!  Maybe next year...

I've also been busy making more cardboard glitter houses.  The little green two story house is a pattern that Howard from littleglitterhouses.com shared on the cardboard Christmas forums.  I was going to wait until next year to make it, but then he surprised me with an adorable Santa figure.  I thought I should make the little guy a new house and I did the whole thing yesterday.

Howard suggested repainting the Santa and giving him a clear coat.  I did repaint him and add some glitter to his base, but I'm still deciding if I want to clear coat him.  I only have gloss clear coat right now, and Michael says he likes him flat.  Maybe I'll try to find some flat clear coat, but for now Santa has a new home.  Thanks, Howard!

I also made another one of the Urban Debris mini Putz houses for my Grandma's Christmas present.  The vintage-looking tall tree, Santa and silver gift boxes all came from WalMart.  I just hot-glued the little scene on the top of a Christmas tin and I plan to fill it with candy and sweets for her. 

We're having a boy!

Right before Thanksgiving we had our anatomy scan. Of course the actual purpose is to check fingers and toes and make sure the little one is developing properly. But, what most parents look forward to, is the big gender reveal. Our sonogram tech was great. She told us right away that he was a boy. Neither one of us were surprised in the least. Michael swore he saw the goods at our last appointment, and he was confident that he knew he was a boy. I couldn't see the screen at the last ultrasound, but I just knew from the moment I thought I was pregnant that it was a boy. I have absolutely no reason for it, I just knew. 

 After the tech chased him around for what seemed like forever, she was able to get all his measurements and my Mom got to come in the room. She was so excited! This will be her first grandson. Everything looks good with the boy. He's extremely active and doesn't sit still for very long. And he's long too! His femurs measure about two weeks ahead. I knew there was a large Viking boy in there! Someone with long legs has been trying to kick through my belly button. 

 We decided way back when we started to talk about kids, that our boy will be named Korben. So he'll be Korben Dino Bacon. That was a very easy decision!

After we had a great dinner with my Mom, we went to Ikea and Michael got his baby boy some toys. He got him a giant shark and two dragons. We had to get each a kitty a baby dragon too.