holiday prepping

the days leading up to christmas were busy and fun. well, mostly. with the ILs scheduled to arrive the weekend before the big day, we scrambled to get the house in order. with no time left to get professional carpet cleaners out to the house, i ended up tackling the job myself.

it was worth it though, because the house smelled pretty as a result. i despise cleaning, but it was good to get it done and see the difference it made. the hub was quite appreciative of my efforts too. 

speaking of the hub, check out the super hideous thing i threw together for him to wear to the cigar shop's first annual ugly christmas sweater party:

the bean helped me make some treats for him to serve. 

we worked on a bunch of gingerbread men for a friend:

found a great use for some leftover homemade caramel sauce:

and finally hung up the stack of lovely christmas cards we'd received. 

we managed to make it out to the americana to meet my folks for brunch, too. the bean posed in front of santa's cottage for me:

and then we stopped off at the concierge desk to have the teen use her newly-acquired professional gift wrapping skillz on a present. she'd managed to land a job that lasted for the two weeks before christmas, and she was pretty excited for the cash flow. pretty, right?

unfortunately, the bean found herself feeling pretty shitty and running a low-grade fever just hours after the ILs arrived. poor baby. 

a festive manicure helped boost her spirits a little. 

on christmas eve, we had dinner with g-wan and took her to church. the bean slept through most of it, but when we got home she managed to stay awake long enough to do some last-minute cookie decorating so she could leave some treats out for santa. 

christmas jammies all around!

every year, i scurry around to find all of the gifts i've bought and hid in secret spots all around the house. i then barricade myself in the bedroom, frantically cutting, folding and taping for what seems like hours until i just don't want to wrap a single present again for the rest of my friggin' life. every year. one day i will learn. just not this time. 

somewhere around 1:30am, it's finally all in place. 

because i am a doofus, i then attempt to create santa's footsteps on the floor using a pair of the hub's boots and a pan of flour. except that a cricket comes hopping out of one boot as i pick it up. i squeal like a little baby, drop the boot, and hop around like an idiot as i quietly freak the eff out. and then when i attempt the stupid footprints the flippin' flour won't stick and i end up creating nothing but a mess on the floor. so frustrating. 

needless to say, the half-eaten cookies ended up serving as our only "proof" of santa's visit after all. 

merry freaking christmas. 

candyland under construction

just before christmas, we were lucky enough to coordinate schedules to have the bean's dance pals over for a gingerbread house decorating party. and because i am either a glutton for punishment or a cheap ass tightwad, i refused to buy those premade kits. oh no, i had to make the gingerbread pieces and royal icing "glue" from scratch. why do i do this crap to myself?

at least i had this sweet set of cookie cutters to use, instead of having to hand-cut the pieces. 

because two of the girls have little sisters who were joining the party, i thought it would be fun to make them mini houses of their own to decorate. this cutter was absolutely perfect for this purpose. 

but when it came time to assemble those things, i found myself contemplating heading to michaels to buy the damn kits. trying to glue the pieces together was the biggest pain in my ass since - hell, i don't even know when. 

while i waited for the foundations to dry a bit before adding the roof pieces, i decided that the houses needed a tree. we've had a pack of sugar cones for ages that nobody likes (and of course, i was too cheap to just toss), along with a tub of cotton candy-flavored frosting i'd bought on clearance at target. i scooped some out, added some green dye, spread it on and decorated with mini m&ms. 

after a lot of cussing and reassembling (i swear, each of those houses fell apart at least once), i finally got them done. 

we'd been gathering all sorts of fun supplies for the party, and i put it all into bowls and trays and set everything out on the buffet. 

i'd also decided that the girls needed personalized aprons, and placed one on each chair. for the moms, i put out some in-n-out aprons we had sitting around. 

the hub made a quick trip to the grocery store to pick up some snacks, and these got set out in the kitchen. 

as the girls arrived, they made a beeline for the bean's room to play. it's funny, but the only time most of her toys get played with is when she has friends over. while they had a blast just being together, the moms and i had a great time catching up with each other. it'd been awhile since we'd all been together, so it was nice to just chat and relax. 

when it was time to get down to business, everyone really got into it. 

they all did a pretty fantastic job with their little project.

cute, right?  and afterwards, we got the girls to pose for a group photo (with a photobomber in the back).

much later, the bean happily helped me clean up. amazingly, despite the number of friends we had over and the crazy amounts of sprinkles we all used, there wasn't much to sweep up. 

the next day, the fun continued with our friends lilcee and mini cee. i don't know why, but we didn't take any pictures. maybe because we were so busy helping the girls decorate. i finally got to cover a roof with "shingles."

doing the houses was a ton of fun, and i'm glad we were able to have our friends over to play. but next year...we're doing cookies. i am definitely a horrible architect. 

pixie-lated

the last couple of weeks with pixie the elfette were actually really fun. i hate to admit it, but i had a blast with that little doll this year. i'm pretty happy that i was able to get through the season without repeating any of last year's antics. and so because i know you've been dying for it, here's the final pixie roundup of 2013.

she came in like a wrecking ball. and then wondered who hannah montana was.

inspired by my recent sewing projects, she took a turn at the machine. 

obviously, she thought i was slacking on getting our christmas cards out. she was right. 

siesta time. 

the magnet set was a gift from the lady next door. pixie thought it was great fun to leave a note for the bean. 

after a long trip to and from the north pole, she earned a dozen mini donuts (and brought some for everyone else).

then she decided she needed to burn those calories off. the bean lamented "awww, she's in 3rd place!"

trapped in a glass cage of emotion. 

i think she threw a bunch of gutter balls. 

DJ pixie-p in da hizzow. 

in case you wondered what she was spinning:

here, she made a contribution to the bean's "gold convertible fund."

ever the trend follower, she really got into THE toy of 2013. 

before leaving for the last time, she left the bean a little parting gift. 

the goodbye note was pretty similar to last year's, giving the bean one chance to pick her up to give her a goodbye hug and kiss. 

she was so excited, and gave her lots of love. 

then she modeled the hat and apron. 

thanks for the fun, pixie. see ya in november!