Finishing 2012 with a bang

With just a week left in 2012 and a million items on my pinterest bucket list, we set out to finish the advent season with as much forced family fun as we could muster. We started off by getting around to making those ginger bread houses. First Mom and Moo took a trip to the neighborhood store and filled our bag with cookies, candies, and other delightful treats. Then Dad read The Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett while Mom madly beat that feisty frosting for the requisite 7-10 minutes. Then Mom gave one house to Moo and one to Dad so that Dad would not insist that Moo's walls met at perfect 90 degree angles and other such grown-up nuisances. Moo was excited to simply have a train on his. He filled his front yard with gummy bears and took the time to put a few on the roof of his palace/cathedral. Dad's was symmetrical and lovely. Mom just tried to use up all the rest of the candy and frosting so that "none should go to waste".  We've spent the past few days being knocked out by the intoxicating fumes (aroma?) of gingerbread candy and frosting. When do we get to eat them?  

Oh, and Lu was content to just suck on all of the candy through the wrappers. She chewed all the bubblegum through the plastic and sucked on 3 candy canes through the plastic. Perhaps next year she'll make a house.  
 Our final products:

Our New Year's Day adventure was to go see the windows down our version of Michigan Avenue. Our first stop was Vakko - this department store puts fake snow on all their trees and building and then has "snow" (bubbles) come out of a snow machine on the roof to delight all the passers-by. We have only had one snow day this year...so this may be the closest we get to enjoying a "winter wonderland".

 We proceeded up the road to one magical window with rotating snowflakes and snowmen. A telephone store had these cool light-up deer and snowmen. And that was the extent of the decorations....as well as the moment the fruit snacks ran out and the kids declared it was time to go home for dinner.