Holiday Happenings 2013

Our Christmas Holiday season 2013, mostly in pictures: 

Levi sings at Church: 

 

Surprised Levi with a trip to Disney for the day, we spend the evening at Downtown Disney, went to the dinosaur restaurant for dinner, and then woke up early to go to Magic Kingdom!

Christmas tree at our hotel (we stayed one night)

  

Downtown Disney

 

The revolving door was just as fun as a ride! 

Custom made allergy friendly meal... a little odd but he was happy!

 

Me on a giant Dino Foot

Levi's very first doughnut, from an allergy friendly bakery.  

 

The Disney Castle

 

Alice and the White Rabbit

Locking up Buddy and Nai Nai

We met the REAL Mickey Mouse, he talked and everything!

 

Bethlehem Walk 

 The best part was the tiny baby cow!

The boys having a ball at a Christmas Music event

 

Santa showed up on a fire truck

 

Explorers Club Holiday Party and secret Santa exchange

 

Cookie making

 

Traveling to Tahoe - playing Jingle Bells over the Loudspeaker at the Airport

Shoveling the non-existent snow

 

Decorating the tree

 

Here is the tree:

 

Spending time with Grammy:

 

Vegan Fondue (Fondue is a Christmas Eve tradition)

 

Levi was concerned about Santa and the fire, and the bears...

 

Grammy Reads the Christmas stories

Christmas Day Brunch (made by me.... except for the bacon)

Happy kid!

 

Christmas Dinner

More happy kid

 

New Years

And sledding!

 

Thats it!   Happy Holidays!

Waldorf Treehouse - made from gingerbread!

 I made a gingerbread house based on waldorf tree houses/gnome houses.  Its made from 4 batches of gingerbread, using a few different recipes to give different colors and sturdiness.  The details are made from melted sugar, edible clay (made from scratch of course) and food coloring.  The only non-edible bits are the base, some toothpicks and a bit of string.  Everything else is all food!  

I have a tree house with 12 gnomes, a play house, checkerboard, swing, picnic table, bench, book, 2 tables, 4 chairs, firepit, garden, well/pulley system, ladders, a staircase, sugar greenhouse, a slide and sea saw, and a dock with a fisherman and lake.  

I painted the gingerbread with cocoa and food coloring to make different shades to make it look more like wood.  The posts were also painted with a layer of watered down gingerbread dough and re-baked to give a bark like texture.  

I tried to get pictures from all sides: 

  

This little green gnome is sitting a toadstool table.

 

Two gnomes sitting at another table on another floor. 

 

A gnome manning the pulley system for the well, and a bright red ladder.

 

On the top level, there is the swing off one side.   There is a picnic table with a chessboard and grey gnome, a little playhouse, and another gnome reading a book.

 

Gnome on a swing

 

Gnome on a yellow bench.

 

The little yellow gnome is fishing on the dock.  The fish is hand painted, and there are two more in buckets (the orange/green one made by my 6yr old).  The water is poured sugar over tin foil.   Behind is the path, hand painted with cocoa. 

 

Here is the greenhouse that I made from poured sugar.   There is also a carrot patch and a basket of carrots.   In the background is the staircase and playground. 

 

This is the well made from gingerbread and painted.  The rock is holding the string for the bucket/pulley system.  Green archway in the background is one of two.

 

Here is the firepit.  Its got "ash" in the bottom, rocks surrounding it (for safety of course), and logs and flame.  The teal gnome is roasting a marshmellow (funny angle in the pic, the marshmellow is by the gnomes face)

 

The pulley system holds this bucket, with a tiny gnome inside!

 

Another shot of the firepit, staircase, path and carrot patch. 

 

Lastly, here is a 360* view (no sound needed, the only audio is my sister watching house hunters in the background!)