Friday Things #401
1. I can’t believe this big kid is going to be SIX in just a few weeks and is nearly halfway through kindergarten. While this has been an insane year, to say the least with lots of things upended, one of the biggest blessings to come out of it is that we have been able to enjoy so much time together.
2. My sweet babes who are joined at the hip ❤️️ (And side note, we finally removed the baby gate from the bottom of the steps a couple of weeks ago and it almost feels like a whole new house, ha! I can’t believe it had been there for over 5 years!)
3. Like most of the people on the Eastern side of the country, we got a great big snowstorm this week! After going through a couple of winters with barely any snow, having two huge snowfalls by the middle of December has been such a welcome joy ❄️
4. Today is the last day of school before Christmas break, and I’m thrilled that there is such a long stretch of time off. When I was working a corporate job, I always tried to save vacation days for two or three days before Christmas; it felt so relaxing, even more so than the week between Christmas and New Year’s!
5. And since we’ll have time to enjoy, I’m thinking of tackling gingerbread houses with the kids since we’ve never done them before. If you do them, do you make them from scratch? Buy a kit? Tell me all the things and any tips for doing it with little ones!
6. If you want a holiday cookie option that’s different and delicious, try my orange cookies with sweet orange glaze. A huge reader favorite!
7. In Jessica’s Tuesday Things post, she was talking about the first CDs she owned, and oh my, it threw me right back to early high school days! Mine was Aerosmith’s Big Ones; what was yours?
8. A good read >> Create a More Spacious Life.
9. Just a quick programming note that with the next two Fridays being holidays, Friday Things will be on hiatus until the beginning of January. I’ll see you back here on January 8th! (Don’t worry, there will be plenty of recipes shared with you during that time!)
10. I hope you have a wonderful holiday season, a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year as we turn the page on 2020!
My kids are now 8, 12, and 15 but for years I have been following the instructions on this post https://www.melskitchencafe.com/gingerbread-houses/ to make simple little houses out of graham crackers. The burnt sugar is amazingly sturdy. When the kids were younger, I’d frost the roof with royal icing and let the kids stick candies all over it. Now that they’re older they can hold the piping bag and decorate the house themselves. I especially love to find holiday colored gummy bears or shaped candies because the kids always set up a scene and have an incredible backstory to go with it. Always fun. Hope you have a wonderful Christmas!
I’ve been following your blog for ALOT of years. Thank you for posting these friday updates, its so sweet to watch your babies grow up and your beautiful furry babes. Thank You as well, for posting recipes that always turn out for me.
Happy Christmas!!
Good for you – regarding Christmas and New Year’s Day off!! Although I do love seeing your pictures!
I love your note about spending more family time. We need to see all the positives possible!
Have a Merry Christmas and best wishes for all great things in 2021!
Merry Christmas Michelle to you and your beautiful family! Thank you for helping us all through 2020, with your wonderful recipes and sharing your sweet children. I hope you enjoy every moment of the holiday season!
Michelle,
Thank you for all the good recipes and the great pictures of your family! Your children are beautiful! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Judy
Oh yeah, Fleetwood Mac Rumors record! Lol!
Buy prebuilt houses and save yourself a big headache especially with little ones!
Merry Christmas to your wonderful family. & furbaby. Love your posts.
This is going to sound crazy. I had some computer issues (virus) and after having it resolved somehow your blog posts stopped coming to my e mail. It took a bit for me to realize it and when I did, it hit me how much I missed seeing all your posts , especially these Friday Things! I am so glad I have you back and can’t wait for what is to come. I share so many of your finds with others and truly have made your family a part of my life. I have been following you since before you were married and your story is so inspiring and truly makes me happy! I am literally doing the happy dance over here!
Use a hot glue gun to assemble the gingerbread houses!! Holds way better, especially for clumsy little decorating hands and then you have a good reason that they can’t be eaten!!
Oseph is such a handsome young boy…and can’t get over how adorable little Dominic is with Isabelle. He’s just lovely too.
My first “cd” was a vinyl lol..yep..that’s telling u a little! Shaun Cassidy then onto Rick Springfield, Madonna was probably some of my firsts with music….but going waaaaaay back-Roy Orbison from my parents handful of records they had..Carpenters and Neil Diamond. Still amazing to hear their songs.
Have a beautiful time off and Merry Christmas to you n family. Thank you for all of your blessings to us in this last brutal year. May I never forget the tenderness bestowed by soooo many people this year…this blog included❤ God bless you so much.
Michelle
I saw a great gingerbread house hack for you to tackle with the crew. Pop Tart houses! Just make the royal icing. And buy pop tarts and lots of candies to decorate.
Hope you have a fun time. Merry Christmas
Dawn
I can’t believe you mentioned the orange cookie recipe! Orange cookies really go with Christmas :) Just last night I printed it and plan to make them tomorrow since I lost track of time today. Can you tell me, is this a cake-like cookie or does it have more of a cookie texture . . . perhaps comparable to a snickerdoodle?
Merry Christmas!
Good health & happiness in 2021!!
I think we all are waiting to turn the calendar!
Enjoy Santa with your Cuties…..
We make gingerbread houses for all sorts of occasions. We always buy a kit, eating the gingerbread isn’t the point. Aldi has great ones this year, with cement like frosting. I put each kind of candy in a muffin tin or ice cube tray so everyone has their own supply. The biggest thing for success, decorate before you build. Nothing rolls off.
I bought a gingerbread kit from Walmart this year. The gingerbread cookies actually held up well and it came with cute candy decor. The icing didn’t work well though. It surprisingly wasn’t very sticky and didn’t adhere well to the gingerbread. I would definitely use the same kit, but I will make my own icing in the future. The kit was less than $10.
Hi Michelle,
I want to wish you and your family a Happy Holiday season. Hopefully, the new year will be a better year. Looking forward to more recipes and hearing about the family.
Just made the orange cookies. They were raw even after 12 minutes. Have my last 6 in the oven now and pressed them flat before baking so hopefully they get done and its not a total loss. Any suggestions for this happening would be appreciated. Have never had a fail with your recipes so I’m surprised
I highly recommend the prefab houses where you just have to attach the door (and chimney, though we always leave that off). After years of frustration between me and my daughter with the build your own kind, game changer. i always buy a few extra embellishments and we tint some of the including icing red and green for extra fun. Muffin tins are awesome as a holder for all the different decorations and if you use liners, no clean up! She’s now 11, so the experience is way different than littles, but those tips were implemented when she was much younger.
I made gingerbread houses for years with my kindergarten students. We would attach graham crackers(with frosting) to their lunch milk carton to create a house and roof. They loved decorating. I don’t know what you can use in place of a milk carton, but perhaps you can improvise something. If you decide to do a regular gingerbread house, I would suggest putting the structure together and allowing it to dry and become stable, before the kids decorate. It takes some time to get the house together and to get the roof to stay on, and the kids might find that process rather long. I have made my own house and I’ve bought the kits. Buying a kit is certainly easier but I did enjoy making my own as well. One year I made a gingerbread Santa’s sleigh that I filled with Santa and presents and decorated. That was fun! My biggest piece of advice as making sure you have a really good gingerbread frosting to hold your structure together! I have a good recipe if you should need it, just email me.
What a joy it has been to follow your adorable kids-and dogs-via your blog. I have been a subscriber for a number of years, but during the isolation of covid, it’s been especially wonderful to see their smiling faces!! Have a Merry christmas!!
I definitely NEED your icing recipe. Would you pls share it?
Happy Holidays to you and your beautiful family. Your recipes and watching your children grow has brought me much joy. Thank you!!
On the Gluesticks Blog I saw a post where they use Pop Tarts to make gingerbread houses. I think that would be an excellent idea if you’re making them for the first time with little kids. Here’s the link: https://gluesticksblog.com/make-a-pop-tart-gingerbread-house-video/?fbclid=IwAR1sien7hFyXmiao-YfuQUOE40T3o5bmsIdanBqB7M75b02TCtLUEq1KkVw
I can’t rem the first CD. My guess would prolly be N’Sync. LOL!!!! My first cassette tape was New Kids on the Block!!!! HAHAHA!!!! I’m really showing my age to you!!!!! ;)
I have been doing gingerbread houses w my grands since the oldest was 2(nearly 3). They are now 6 and 8. In my personal opinion Costco has the best ones. They are already put together except for the chimney and the roof over the front door. The part that children is enjoy is not so much the construction of the house — you have to let that dry and set up — but the decorating. Mine don’t have patience for that. So Papa and I do the chimney and little door roof the night before, and then the kids can focus on the joy of the decorating. Costco includes lots of icing and candies but I always have some extra M&M’s on hand because they also want to eat those! 🤣. Enjoy every minute. It is so fun to see how each child does theirs! 💖
Merry Christmas to you and your sweet beautiful family. I look forward to spending 2021 hearing all about your children and trying new recipes from you. You never disappoint.
Enjoy the snow! We don’t get any here at the beach in Southern California!
I am guessing a kit might be the easiest route for the GB house….less baking and more decorating !
When I was teaching Kindergarten, the kids each made a mini decorated house at Holiday time. We saved the milk cartons from the lunchroom, cleaned them out really well and used them as a base. My assistant took on the task of attaching graham crackers to the sides and roof with royal icing. Once that was completed and we had 20 naked houses, we had groups of 4 children, each day, sit with an adult to decorate the houses. By the end of the week, all the houses were finished and were so adorable. The first year was a leaning experience, organization wise…rules about candy eating were the first priority… but the kids had soooo much fun. My assistant and I looked forward to doing this every year.
I hope when you return in the new year, there will be lots and lots of Holiday photos of your sweet family celebrations.
Happy, Happy Christmas and Merry, Merry New Year!!!!
Great pics Michelle, Nerry Christmas to you and your family.
No gingerbread house making advice but have you seen posts of people making similar type houses with Pop Tarts? I think that would be fun.
Making your Chocolate Crinkle Sprinkle cookies this weekend-one on my favorites.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and your family 🎄
Thank you Michelle for all your delicious recipes and pictures of your beautiful children. I love “Friday Things” – so heartwarming! I hope you and your family have a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2021! Enjoy your time with your children and take some pictures of your gingerbread house – would love to see!
For the gingerbread houses, use graham crackers and hot glue them together. It is much more fun for little children to decorate something that doesn’t fall apart. 😍
Merry Christmas Michelle to you and your beautiful family.
We’ve made gingerbread houses from scratch for a long time. My main tip would be to assemble the houses the night before. It takes awhile for them to dry and sometimes little ones can’t wait. Have fun, oh and we just got our first 5” where I live and I LOVE SNOE, TOO!
I have been admiring your beautiful family and your home for some time now and just had to tell you. I have enjoyed your recipes and will continue to choose my favorites in the years ahead.
Happy Holidays !!
Gingerbread houses with kids are so fun! I’ve done all the options—baked them, used a premade kit and even used hot glue and boxes. Honestly, my favorite was a small cardboard box with graham crackers hot glued on that I then did royal icing swirls around all the corners to make it look gingerbread house-y and once they dry, the kids can go crazy with the icing and candy and they don’t fall apart! That’s always the hardest part for my kiddos, everything falling off after a few days!
I will miss your “Friday’s Things” post for the next couple of weeks, but I think you deserve some down time after providing so many delish holiday recipes and how-to videos. Enjoy every minute with your precious kiddos and family and have a safe fun holiday break. Merry Christmas and here’s to a better 2021 for all of us!
My kids look forward to gingerbread houses every year. We’ve done every kind of kit out there and they all have one thing in common- the icing is terrible, doesn’t hold and the cookies taste terrible (they inevitably want to eat them- yuck!). The pieces also tend to break fairly easily.
We made them from scratch one year, which went much more smoothly, except for the fact that I forgot to bake the roof pieces. We used a template I found online. They loved helping bake and cut out the pieces and then decorating their roofless houses, which tasted much better than the kits. Either way, keep your expectations flexible and focus on the fun of it rather than the end result (maybe I’m just reminding myself ;).
Michelle,
Thank you so much for doing this! I especially love your family recipes, in fact, I have replaced many of mine for yours! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!! –Lisa
I’ve never made a homemade ginger house-sitting I’ve always used a lot and that’s what I use with m kids. Pro -tip though, I use hot glue to glue the house together and then let the kids decorate. Holds better than frosting and makes it so the kids can just have fun instead of waiting dorbicing to hold.
Merry Christmas to you and your beautiful family. Thank you for letting us all in to share all that happens in your life. I look forward to your Friday posts along with all your delicious recipes.
Wishing you a healthy, happy and exciting 2021!
I vote to just buy the premade gingerbread houses! Much easier!