Sweet Houses

I know that I should be spending the morning looking back, reflecting and sharing what the year has brought us, but I still have holidays to share. This happened to me last year and I was left feeling that I had not quite done justice to the fun we had. So, you can choose to stay, or click away, as I am still posting about Christmas.

Each year, the girls and I make gingerbread houses. LibbyLu and I began with traditional mix, roll, cut, and bake gingerbread. It was exhausting so I began to buy kits. When our family grew, the kits became quite expensive, so I searched for alternatives. The girls have so much fun building these sweet houses that I would have gone on investing in the kits, but we discovered our current, and favorite, building with graham crackers. We choose one evening in December and lay out the candy.


With candy as our centerpiece, we ate homemade potato soup and bread.


My favorite.



I mix up some gingerbread house glue, royal icing, and we begin to put houses together. You want your icing to be thick and quick drying. I used to use meringue powder, but learned that egg whites have a few benefits. First, the girls can't eat as they frost, cutting down on some of the sugar intake that is bound to take place in this process. Second, the royal icing is tougher and dries faster.


Royal Icing

4 egg whites
4 cups sifted confectioner's sugar
1 teaspoon cream of tartar

Beat egg whites in clean, large bowl with mixer at high speed until foamy. Gradually add sugar and cream of tartar. Beat at high speed until thickened. NOTE: You may control the thickness of the royal icing with a bit of milk to thin and bit more sugar to thicken.

Grace built her own building this year, but I still keep Cubsey and LibbyLu's basic and simple. I use a serrated knife to cut my crackers to size. It is so simply and since the graham crackers are light, the houses are easy to build.


Investing in a few special touches makes the houses special.


It was a good evening of creative work and concentration.





When I finished mine, I placed it on the cake stand in the center of the table and snapped this picture. Although the picture is of the house, I do see irrefutable evidence of candy snacking. Got you, girls!


John decided to join us again this year and the girls were thrilled. Dad is great at play and the girls love that he dives right in.



GraceLu's candy mansion is for homeless children. So pretty.



Cubsey's chimneys always sport Santa's legs. He gets stuck every year.



LibbyLu was dubbed the queen of icicles this year. Those are peace signs on the roof.



Mine is red and white. My favorite colors.


And John's, well, he built the outhouse with TP trees for our little neighborhood.


Our sweet houses (and John's) lived in the corner cabinet in dining room until Christmas Eve when they were gently placed on the table (except John's) to join us for dinner.

City Sidewalks

Mom and I were able to fit in a little last minute afternoon shopping while in Philly. It was a week before Thanksgiving and we were just in time for the holiday windows. I miss holiday windows and downtown department stores, so this was a treat. Here we are.


I purchased holiday party dresses, glittery and girly, for LibbyLu and Lucy. I could not help myself.


Macy's hoiday theme this year is Believe. Of course we believe! Don't you?



Macy's was dressed to its holiday finest inside. The beauty of the building is something to see in itself.



We wandered around touching oohing and awwing all things wonderfully domestic, petting cashmere sweaters, and critiquing evening wear. Macy's calls the Wanamaker building home. Mr. Wanamaker was the first to think of employee welfare. In the glory days of his retail career he had a policy never to scold employees on the sales floor in front of customers. He was also the first in the nation to offer health-care benefits to his employees. Maybe we could all take a lesson from Mr. Wanamaker as we go about this thing we call doing business.


Store employees were getting ready for a visit from Julie Andrews and her daughter, promoting their new book. The store houses one of the world's largest organs and our shopping was occasionally accompanied by the organ music.


It was quite the shopping experience.


Another beautiful building we visited was The Bellevue. I have been looking for some time now for a chandelier for my sewing room and selected this for my sewing room chandelier.


Just kidding. Isn't it beautiful? The stores at The Bellevue were wonderful and I had a difficult time controlling myself at William-Sonoma. I will soon share the treat I purchased there.


Of course, what would a big city trip be without a trip to Tiffany's? Look at their holiday window. This is completely cut from paper. It is amazing. The sleigh, of course, is adorned with diamond necklace reins.


It was a great afternoon. Just wait until you see what we had for lunch.

It Is Snowing

by Susan Mitchell

I walked into the kitchen to get a drink of water before snuggling under the quilts for the night, looked out the kitchen window and found it was snowing. I love snow. Pleasant dreams.

Holiday Thrifting

I did manage to squeeze in a little holiday thrifting. It was a productive forty five minutes I thought.

It Rained On Our Parade

Springfield is certainly not a small town. It boasts a population of 156,206 and takes claim to being the third largest and fastest growing city in Missouri. But, Springfield is different than other cities its size in some ways. We lack diversity of many kinds and where diversity lives is somehow isolated within the boundaries of higher education . This lack of diversity short changes our children. We have a tremendous arts culture, despite some reluctance to sustaining it. I love that. I love being a part of that. We are a college town. We are a learning town and a growing town. We don't know how to drive well here. We are, in some areas of thinking, behind the times. We are small town in many ways, but not all of these ways are bad. Our town is small enough that, if we have the notion, we can know our neighbors. After teaching for nearly six years at the college, I rarely go out to shop or eat without running into a student past and present. We have art festivals, music festivals, chili cook-offs and parades. This year's Christmas parade showcased Springfield in its small town glory.


It rained on our parade and the girls huddled in the car out of the wind and wet waiting for the LibbyLu to line up with the rest of the cheer squad. The longer we waited, the harder it rained. LibbyLu was excited as there are the few times she is allowed to wear makeup. Her hair is growing so beautifully long and thick that cheer hair is becoming harder and harder to up-do. Despite gray skies, her hair held its curl and glitter. The rain stopped as the parade begun.


Our peace officers kicked off the parade.




The National Guard was there.


We were joined by friends,


and family.

Hey this is not Mayberry, or is it?


The rain stopped, but the cheer girls looked cold. Good cheer smile Libby. Where is your coat? When I dropped her off at the beginning of the parade route she had a coat. I swear.



LibbyLu's group appeared early in the parade, so she had a chance to join us in snuggling and candy collecting.




Love the Kilties. Go ladies!


Here are our parade balloons. Ha!


I was surprised to see Kermit the frog. Great car Kermi. Lucy and I watched the Macy's Day Parade together early Thanksgiving morning. I have always had a small affection for Kermit but when we watched him sing "I Believe in Santa" in the parade, I cried. Should I admit this? It is a hand covered in felt after all. It's not easy being green.


Some local advertising.



Bands. Yeah!


Some floats.

There were a few local celebrities.


Hey, girls! Who thought it was a good idea to let Uncle Dan hold the candy?