My Favorite Holiday Tradition: Making a Gingerbread House

Ever since I made a gingerbread house with the daughter of a boss  many, many years ago, I've made a gingerbread house every year.  Some years, I've made them on my own.  Most years, I've made them with my niece and nephew.

Last year, CJ and I made a gingerbread house and boy did we have a great time.  This year, we found a gingerbread train kit.  Given that CJ is obsessed with trains and I love gingerbread kits, this was a perfect activity for us on a cold Sunday.

I was in charge of putting the train together with the icing and putting the icing on the gingerbread pieces, while CJ was in charge of decorating the train.  My mother-in-law is visiting so she helped with the decorating as well.  We even customized our masterpiece with a Sir Topham Hatt, tree and stop sign from CJ's wooden train set.

At first, I tried to provide direction about what candy pieces should go where, but CJ had a mind of his own and he knew just where to put the candy pieces.  And you know what?  He did a great job without my help.  It didn't take me long to realize that this project was all about him, it doesn't have to be perfect (by a long shot) and making him do the work makes CJ independent and proud.

This gingerbread kit reminded me of a birthday party we attended a couple of weeks ago at a paint your own pottery place.  When we got there, I put an apron on CJ and he immediately went to work.  He picked a couple of pieces, started mixing colors and must have painted his pieces a jillion times.  The end result was ceramic Christmas ornaments that are mostly brown from all the mixing of colors.  What cracked me up was the couple of moms who, after their kids "finished" painting, basically redid the work. One mom painstakingly painted a reindeer ornament, while another mom created a beautiful tree.  These ornaments are going to be pretty, but they won't exactly be creations of their kids.  

When CJ's ornaments come back after being fired, he will be able to say they are his, and he painted them without mommy's help.  And I know he will hang them on our tree with pride. As Maki puts it, if I just put aside my over-achieving self and let CJ do the work, everyone is better for it. :-)

Santa Claus

This is the first year that CJ is really excited about Santa Claus.  We've been taking him to see Santa Claus for the past three Christmases, watching Polar Express and talking about Santa Claus, but this is the first year that CJ has talked about Santa, asked questions about him, thought about what it means to be bad and not get presents, etc.

We've seen two Santas this holiday season.  A couple of weeks ago, we went to the mall with my sister and niece to see Santa.  We went early so the mall wasn't packed.  CJ was less nervous about sitting on a stranger's lap than in years past and he knew just what to say when Santa asked him what he wanted: Trackmaster Thomas and battery-powered Percy.

At CJ's holiday party at school last week, Santa arrived and once again, the kids lined up to sit on St. Nick's lap and tell him what they want for Christmas.  It's interesting that CJ did not note that Santa looked different, nor wonder why Santa needed to hear from him twice about what he wants for the holidays.

We even have CJ's Christmas wish list on our fridge.  As expected, the list is full of Thomas gear.  So I've lined up the entire family to get CJ the various trains and tracks that he wants.  Our living room and hall closet are now filled with four sets of trains and tracks:

• grey plastic tracks and take along trains
• wooden tracks and what CJ calls lead along trains
• grey tracks and battery-powered trains
• Lego tracks and trains

I just hope that CJ's fascination with trains doesn't wane to soon because we have a small fortune locked up in trains. 

The Lighting of the National Christmas Tree

Last Thursday, December 4, CJ and I (plus some staff members at Matrix Group) had the privilege of attending the ceremony on the Ellipse for the Lighting of the National Christmas Tree. 

We had been given tickets by a client because of our work on the national tree site and boy were we excited.  Nicole, one of the designers at the office who worked on the site, said she and her boyfriend had been trying to get tickets (unsuccessfully) for years!

We had a great time!  Maki dropped us off on the Mall coz we knew parking would be crazy and I just didn't know how reliable Metro would be.  Other staff members took a cab, which took forever, but thank goodness they arrived on time as well.

We had great seats, the weather was gorgeous (clear, cold, but not too cold), and the program was amazing but not too long for a 4-year old.  We especially enjoyed:

• Step Afrika, a dance troup from Washington, DC
• Kaitlin Maher from America's Got Talent; CJ just loved her
• Country music singers Rissi Palmer and Phil Vassar; I'm a country music fan so it was a treat to see them

As per tradition, President and Mrs. Bush attended the entire event.  Surprisingly, security to get into the event was not crazy, although the President and Mrs. Bush were behind bulletproof glass (when did that start?) and there were security forces on the tops of all buildings.  

After the hour-long program, President Bush gave a few remarks then asked his wife to help him light the tree.  The tree is gorgeous, but we understand that it's not doing so well after 30 years as the national tree.  The tree itself is wearing a kind of net; the ornaments hang off the net so as not to strain the tree.  And it looks like the star at the top of the tree is on a steel pole, not the tree.  Regardless, the tree is mighty impressive; it's almost perfectly straight, neatly trimmed and majestic in the middle of Presidents' Park on the Ellipse.  I just wish this year's tree had more color; last year's tree had red bows which, I think, made the tree look more festive.

After the event, CJ had to go potty, so we did not exit right away -- and a good thing, too!  We walked the Pathway of Peace, which is a pathway of tree decorated with ornaments donated by each state and territory; there is one tree per state and territory.  We also got to see Santa's Workshop (it was closed but very pretty) and enjoy hot chocolate.

The highlight of the evening for CJ was the trains running around the national tree.  There are 9 sets of trains running around the tree, including two immediately surrounding the tree, two on the perimeter, three small villages, and a set of bridges.  We talked to a man who looked to be in his late teens.  He said he and his dad have been setting up the trains for the last 14 years.  The train set that goes around the tree is the official train set and takes about three days to set up.  The tracks, towns and bridges are really pretty, and the trains really are neat as they run around the tree.  CJ could have stood there for hours!

After the tree lighting, Maki joined me, CJ and Andrew for dinner at Ten Penh.  CJ was pooped from being in the cold and from all the walking, but that didn't stop him from wolfing down an order of vegetable tempura and tuna sashimi.  Needless to say, CJ was asleep not two minutes after we got into the car to go home.

The lighting of the national tree is one of those quintessentially Washington experiences and I'm really glad we got to experience it.