Friday Favorites: The Week We Decorated our Gingerbread Houses

We had such a fun filled week and Oh boy did we ever get some snow!  We are officially decorated and ready for Christmas and found a few ways to squeeze in some extra holiday fun this week.

We all worked together to get the whole house decorated for Christmas on Friday (you can view our Christmas house tour here).  Later that night we invited my mother in law over for dinner (our traditional Thanksgiving leftover pie) and tree decorating. We had a fire going in the fireplace and watched a few episodes of Nailed It holiday edition before settling in to watch the Grinch.  It was a perfectly wonderful, relaxing, holiday night.

I spent most of day on Saturday working on the blog; I took a few days off last week and wanted to make sure I was working on posts at least a week in advance again.  We decided that we were going to get pizza delivered for dinner and it was so nice not to worry about cooking.  Alec got the cutest ornament this weekend from his grandmother (all the boys got one but Alec wanted to share his on the blog and took a photo for me; it is just perfect for my not-so-little baker!).

My husband and I were up real early on Sunday so we could try to beat the crowds to the grocery store.  We were in need of pretty much everything and with a big winter storm in the forecast we knew everyone would be flocking to the stores.  We arrived at 7 (right when they opened!) and found the lot was mostly full! Once home, Alec and I worked together to make a turkey/broccoli/rice casserole using our favorite recipe (and just subbing out the chicken for the turkey).  We also made some Upside Down Buckeye Cookies I'll be sharing on the blog Dec. 9th.  We had a fire going in the woodstove and it was nice and toasty in the house even if it was quite chilly outside.

We got back to our schoolwork on Monday and after our break it was difficult to get back into it.  Ian was gone off and on throughout the day plowing.  We didn't get anywhere near the 14 inches they were predicting and I was so thankful for that.  I did have to run out to the library but other than that we enjoyed a cozy day at home.

We woke to more snow on Tuesday! Ian headed out plowing first thing and pretty much kept on plowing until afternoon; he's been loving all this snow! Alec and I drove all the way to karate only to find that class had been cancelled because of the snow; it was not a fun drive and we saw several cars spun out and in snowbanks littering the highway.  My poor knuckles actually hurt once we arrived home but we made it safe and sound!  However, we did spot a momma and baby deer on one of the back roads with the snow covered trees and road all around them it was so picture perfect; too bad I can't take photos while driving!  Once home the boys spent a good portion of the day playing outside (as soon as their schoolwork was done). Thankfully the sun was popping out by mid-afternoon and the round of storms ended.. for now.  Ian and I watched National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation together after dinner; it's my favorite Christmas movie and he asked if I'd like to watch it with him.  There was no way I was saying no.

We got just about every subject covered on Wednesday and then the two older boys decorated our gingerbread house(s)!  I had bought a pre-made house kit after searching high and low for an Oreo kit I had been seeing on the internet. When I went to buy more candy to decorate our existing kit I found the Oreo kit at our local CVS.  I bought it and since only the older two wanted to decorate they each got their own house.  They did such a great job on them too!

I headed out bright and early again on Thursday morning to do some more grocery shopping; with three tween/teen boys the food just does not last long in our house.  After putting away all the groceries and getting all our chores done Evan asked if we could skip school and go to a museum or something.  I too felt like going out and called my mom to join us.  We went to the Florence Griswold museum and learned all about this boarding house turned artist colony.  They had some real pretty Christmas decorations up too-  come back tomorrow to see all the Christmas photos I took.