Monday, December 11, 2023

Gingerbread and Hot Cocoa

I had to reschedule to a later time slot due to sports, one still had back to back practices and the three oldest grandchildren had numerous conflicts, but we did get the houses made! 
I cheated and bought box kits. These came from Family Dollar and were only $5 each. They came with candy, icing and all the prebaked pieces for the house and roof. I was more than impressed. The pieces were thick enough that they did not break, they were cut with slots like giant puzzle pieces and the icing dried quickly enough that they did not collapse while being decorated. 


To kill some time while the walls set up, I prebaked some cut out cookies from GFS for the kids to decorate. 


The white foam trays for the cookies and houses helped keep other people's fingers out of your icing, frosting and candies. 


I was so excited at how seriously they undertook the tasting of the hot cocoa.  Everyone got three of the tiny Santa mugs I purchased at Big Lots. #1 was Salted Carmel, #2 was raspberry, #3 was original, plain old hot cocoa.  (I don't have an adventurous bunch). The tasters voted and it was very close between Salted Carmel and original. 


Even the little guys were proud of their creations.  

I baked a ham, put together a macaroni salad, a pasta salad and a crockpot of chili for the parents and children.  After all their hard work, they put about 5 ornaments on my tree (the decorating plan was a failure). They wrote a short play about leaving Santa milk and cookies; we were treated to a performance.  Then they just enjoyed being cousins.  I am going to try to upload a video which shows a brief minute in the chaos that ensued. 

It went very well!  I love getting as many of my grandchildren together as possible and creating memories.  I think they all really enjoyed the evening. 

I had some meetings today - I don't want to share a downer - and tomorrow I guess I will decorate the tree.  



15 comments:

  1. Sounds like a successful memory making event, Miss Merry. I've never attempted to make a gingerbread house. May have to try it one day. And the short video was really cute! And I like the idea of the hot chocolate tasting event.

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  2. Wow, you are so creative with everything you do. It sure seems like the kids really had a great time with decorating gingerbread houses and cookies. Yum on the hot chocolate tasting.

    I love the play. When we were little, we did some plays for my grandparents. Gratefully, they enjoyed it as much as we enjoyed doing it!

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  3. What a great time! Love the hot cocoa tasting. I will pass that on to my niece. She did a tea party for her granddaughters and the boys wanted to know what they get and she is looking for ideas. My next post is about building gingerbread houses. The price on those kits this year are really affordable!

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  4. You are the worlds bestest Grandma! And you have such a great imagination of things to do with the kids. It looks as though all had a great time decorating houses and cookies. I'm so glad you get to do these things. Great memories are being made.
    Blessings and hugs,
    Betsy

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  5. Miss Merry, you & Christmas sure go together! Very cute kids (and houses) and the hot cocoa tasting was funny & sweet! And I can just taste that baked ham... :^)

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  6. Happy Christmas! The Gingerbread houses are so cute! Looks like great fun at your house!

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  7. What a great way to make lasting memories with your grandchildren...I am looking forward to doing things like that with the twins...2 weeks to go until the target date when they will schedule their births....I will be glad though when it is all over and everyone is healthy and fine....Thanks so much for always stopping by!! I do appreciate it!!
    Hugs,
    Deb

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  8. Sounds like a fun gathering and a memory I'm sure the kids will remember and cherish. Well done Grandma! Merry Christmas to you and yours.

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  9. Me again....Thanks so much for your visits...Well, tomorrow will be 36 weeks for Danielle...And she is still working!! So far so good...She will hit the beginning of their target dates for the birth of the twins next Friday so hopefully, she will not go into labor prior to that....I guess they will schedule the birth date next week sometime....I was supposed to be on bed rest with both my sons , having to quit 6 weeks early with each one...I really did not listen to them especially when I had a toddler at home when pregnant with Jim..I delivered 3 weeks early with Jim and 4 weeks early with Joey and they were both over 7 pounds....I never had help before or after when I had my sons...I would not allow it....I was back to work when Jim was 5 weeks old as I used up my time before the birth...Joe was out of work than so he watched the boys while I was at work. Then I went night shift when he got a job so we would not need anyone else to watch our kids...That was the beauty of being a nurse because I was able to work a different shift so we could be with our sons and not impose on anyone else...I have no idea what Jim and Danielle's intentions are about working afterward...I know I will be helping with the pups though at first and with Jim taking a month off for paternity leave, I am sure they will want to do it alone because Jim is definitely my son and just like me with not wanting any help...They bought everything for the nursery, put it together themselves and then told everyone about it...I still have not seen what it looks like....
    Merry Christmas!
    Hugs,
    Deb

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  10. Thanks so much for all your visits and words of encouragement over this past year....
    Merry Christmas to you and your family...
    Hugs,
    Deb

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  11. The gingerbread house making looks so fun! It looks like everyone had a great time. And it's so sweet that they took the hot cocoa tasting so seriously.

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  12. Me again! Thanks so much for stopping by!! I hope you all had a Merry Christmas....It was actually a quiet one until it became a nerve racking one when Danielle was admitted to be induced and it took almost 45 hours....Glad the twins are here and everything went well!!
    Happy New Year!
    Hugs,
    Deb

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  13. Your grandchildren will have lots of fond memories of happy Christmases.

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  14. Happy New Year!! Thanks so much for always taking the time to drop by and for letting me know that you did by leaving such a nice comment...The babies ended up back in the hospital in the NICU for the last 2 days due to a low body temp...They are supposed to be discharged tomorrow morning....It has been quite a few days....Geesh!
    Hugs,
    Deb

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  15. Hope you had a wonderful holidays season with friends and family. Happy New Year to you.
    Sandy's Space

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Thank you so much for stopping by to visit! I love your comments and suggestions and read them all. Due to spam, I will now have to approve all comments. Sometimes it takes me a hot minute to authorize comments due to grandchildren commitments. I apologize but I can't let those scammers get the upper hand!

Miss Merry