Christmas past

We got an email from GaGa HoHo who asked about our gingerbread house project. (The email was sent back in December. Sorry, my fault!) So, even though they have gone to the great gingerbread house city "in the sky" I took photos before they were sent. This is Andrew's. He was especially pround of the marshmallows on the candy canes. That is a sandbox in the front, for the kids to play in. (can you see any missing pieces? Andrew was our culprit if we found any candies missing!)



This is Alex's. He did a double. By the way, all of the candies were imported from Houston. Poppa Ed and GaGa HoHo and Aunt Steph brought in a suitcase full of candies for us to use. It was difficult to find candies here in London. Even candy canes were hard to find.

This is Christmas eve dinner with Grammy and Grandpa Dames. They visited us over the Christmas holidays. On the menu: tortellini soup, antipasta, and a green salad. We are wearing our paper crowns from our Christmas crackers. Did you know that the origin of Christmas crackers is from right here in England? Tom Smith came up with the idea and you can find crackers everywhere all over London at Christmastime. (Don't you feel lucky to have your own personal conceirge of British Christmas traditions??)(Unfortunately, that is the extent of it.)

This is a picture of our tree. The photo really doesn't do it any justice. It really was beautiful! However, it too has gone to the Christmas tree farm "in the sky" and this pic is all we have left.

Whoops. Sorry this is out of order..... I am still learning how to upload pics. Anywho, this is John's creation. It's a church. My favorite part is the rose window! (my London townhome is in the background.) We ended up with quite a nice gingerbread city, a.k.a. ginormous (british term for gigantic and enormous) super-secret snacking post for some kids who will remain nameless.

This is Andrew's gingerbread house he did at school. Before the Thanksgiving break the teachers requested that if anyone was going home to the states for their T-giving holiday, please bring back candies for the gingerbread house project. Needless to say, they ended up with more than enough and lots of variety.