It's Mayhem over here

I apologize for being delinquent in my posting... but it's been mayhem over here. I am in Full Christmas Mode, baking and decorating and shopping and ordering and planning. I had two victories yesterday: I delivered to my dad one of his Christmas presents, a homemade gingerbread house, and my family cookbook arrived in the mail.
The gingerbread house is a huge undertaking since it is entirely done from scratch and from a Martha Stewart cookbook. (I can hear you all inwardly groaning.) This is the fourth time I have made it and it is just as much a labor of love as I remember it. I estimate it took me about 9-10 hours total to make it. It is a square house with amber-colored melted sugar windows and white icing to decorate it. (No colored candy here... too lowbrow.) It is a multistep process and of course my 'helpers' were right along side me the whole time. When I was doing the final decorating, I was sitting on a kitchen chair and Jenna was standing on the chair behind me, leaning on me, bumping my arm and playing with my hair. I was getting frustrated that it wasn't looking perfect and then I realized that when Martha was making her gingerbread house, she probably didn't have her daughter Alexis standing on the chair behind her saying, "Now I put my hands in yo-wah hahhh!"
But it all came together in the end and I delivered it to my dad and he was very appreciative. We set it up with a strand of Christmas lights inside so the light shines through the windows and warms the house itself so a delicious smell of gingerbread comes out of it. It really is pretty and homey and holiday-ish. I'll post a picture soon.
In other news, my cookbook came yesterday in the mail and it's fabulous! They did a great job printing it and it is really nice to see a big project come together. I am really pleased with the overall final product. I feel like it's a really nice tribute to my grandma and that's the best part for me.
So today is our Birthday Party for Jesus Party, which started out as a baptismal birthday party for Michaela and has morphed over the years. Michaela was baptized on December 23rd and we used to have a little party with family and friends every year to celebrate and honor that day. It was also a really nice way to see friends around Christmas. Now since our circle of friends all have children in the 2-6 year old range, we turned it into a Jesus birthday party, complete with a cake and candles. This year we are going to have big sugar cookies for the kids to decorate with frosting and sprinkles and candies, too, so that should be a lot of fun to watch. And a huge mess, but a fun mess.