Tag: christmas

Books, Screens, and In-Betweens (Including Soup and Story Saturday)

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized11 Comments

Hello everyone! I am linking up with Deb at Readerbuzz,  Kathryn at Book Date, and  Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer.

I have a little cold that I have been nursing my way through and spent the weekend being cozy and warm and watching movies. I fully intended to write my Soup and Story Saturday post last night, but I ate my soup, took a shower, crawled under the covers, and that was it. Game over. All productivity was lost after that.

So I am just combining it today, sort of, with this post.

First off, what I am reading. I didn’t do much reading last week, unfortunately. Before I got the ick from Billy and Wyatt, Wyatt and I finished up his book, The Celery Stalks at Midnight. I didn’t get a chance to grab my library book at all, and in fact, Billy ended up picking up my holds Friday night, with all the books I wanted to read in that stack. So I finally got to start the book I had been waiting for.

It is literally everything I need right now. I am reading slowly but I am really enjoying it. This series is such a light fluffy series and that is precisely why I like it.

Posted Last Week:

Comfy Cozy Christmas: Making Christmas

Top Ten Tuesday: Books Set in Snowy Places

My Favorite Quotes From Every Book I Read This Year: Part 2

Friday Morning Coffee Catch Up

Watching:

I spent a lot of time curled up watching shows with Wyatt, YouTube, movies. This is not usually me but I will say I am feeling pretty rested. Wyatt and I watched lots of Frog and Toad. He will watch them over and over, and we both really enjoyed the Christmas Eve episode a lot.

I have also been watching some Christmasy YouTubes. I have been watching Morgan Long’s Vlogmas, Shelby’s Cottage, and Real Vintage Dollhouse.

As for movies, we have watched Emmet Otter’s Jug- Band Christmas, Christmas at the Catnip Cafe (which was soo cheesy but I 100% loved it), Bramble House Christmas, and Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmas. Tonight, we are going to watch another Hallmark Christmas movie. I am excited!

Soup and Story:

I won’t make this post super long with a story, but I was so grateful for this ramen last night. I absolutely love it. The restaurant is at the back of a gaming center, where people go to play tabletop games like DnD and Warhammer. It is pretty smart for them, because people will sit and play all day and they are probably just making so much money off the gamers which good for them. This food is amazing too. I could eat it everyday.

Around the Interwebs:

So I cohost a few different things with Lisa at Boondock Ramblings, although I have been doing poorly the past 10 days or so. I am just going to quote her here:

Lisa at Boondock Ramblings and I host a monthly bookish link party called A Good Book and A Cup of Tea.  This link-up is for book and reading posts or anything related to books and reading (even movies based on books!). Each link party will be open for a month. You can find that link up for this month here.

We are also hosting Comfy Cozy Christmas! Anything holiday related – any December holiday – at all that strikes your fancy and you write about, please think about sharing on our linky. You can find the link for that at the top of my page in the menu or here.

We also will be starting Crafternoons back up in January and we hope to post the dates soon!

And that is it from me today! Stay safe and take care of yourselves my friends!

Top Ten Tuesday: Books Set in Snowy Places

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized38 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl!

Today’s Prompt: Books Set in Snowy Places. Today, that could be Michigan!

A Fellowship of Games and Fables: My book for the week! It takes place in snowy Adenashire.

Greenglass House is one of my favorite MG reads. I just love everything about it.

The Enchanted Greenhouse may sound like it should be a spring or summer book, but it really takes place in the snowy winter. One of my favorite things during snowy season is to visit greenhouses and conservatories, and be reminded of heat and green growing things, so I think that contributed to my love of this book.

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden is all about the winter and snow. I read it during a snowstorm and it was perfect.

Fox Crossing is just a cute little read – I loved this whole series!

A Blizzard of Polar Bears was not my favorite honestly. I wanted to love this series and I will probably give it another chance now that I have reminded myself of it, but there is no denying that this book that takes place in the Canadian Arctic is a snowy book. It wasn’t bad, from the scientific pov but the character herself is a bit too..action hero sometimes.

The Frozen River is actually on my TBR. I never got to it when everyone else was reading it! Maybe this winter.

The Shining. Seriously, there is no way I could have made this list without this book.

I was obsessed by Goolrick’s writing years ago, and A Reliable Wife is phenomenal in my opinion.

While the Earth Holds Its Breath. This book sounds absolutely lovely, and I have it on my TBR for winter. So I guess you guys got a tiny preview of my next week’s post this week! Lol.

I am excited to see everyone’s choices today!

I hope that whatever you do today, you do something that makes you smile!

Comfy Cozy Christmas: Making Christmas

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized13 Comments

Hello everyone!! I hope you are all having a wonderful December so far! Things here are beginning to look like Christmas. Snow outside, our indoor decorations are up, I have some Christmas homeschool in the works, and we have been watching Christmas movies.

My grandma made that white tree. It had reddish orange bulbs before, but I replaced them with clear lights and I like it better. I do need to replace the star that was at the top. I think I can find them on Amazon, more than likely.

That little Christmas tree, the green one, is covered in ornaments that Wyatt and I have made together every year since he was old enough to help. I need to pick an ornament for us to make together this year still, but I love this little tree.

I have been hiding little bits of Christmas places this year. A little teapot ornament with mice tucked in among the plants on the sill, a tree ornament from 1978 on a shelf near my books. I like running across these little bits of the holiday as I go about my day.

I decked my dresser all out this year as well, with Christmas books and a plaid wool runner, and my vintage Regency Christmas romance books. The stuffed Highland Cow was a gift from my son this year; I have named him Sir Reginald, as he looks like a down on his luck member of the gentry.

I am not quite done decorating, but I am so close.

This area is a little blah still, so I want to add some greenery to it.

The tree is Wyatt’s favorite, hands down. He loves when the tree goes up, and loves helping to decorate it. I love our assortment of ornaments. We have more than we can put on, with many leftover from my childhood, and from life before Wyatt, really. So we try to do a mix, some childhood, some Billy and Erin pre-Wyatt, then the ornaments we collected when he was born.

I even decorated Miso, much to her annoyance.

I took the hat off after the photo, and she forgave me. She got all cuddly and warm and purred away, which is always nice in the winter isn’t it, a nice warm cat on your lap?

We watched A Garfield Christmas the other night, and there is a scene that touches my heart and makes me tear up so much now, as an adult.

I am not quite done decorating, but I am so close.

We also watched Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas, which is one of my own personal favorites, and Wyatt is beginning to love it too. Billy, he tolerates it for me, but we do have our own little jokes that we say to each other all year from the movie. We watched it last night, and I wanted to make it a whole thing. So we set up the den all snuggly and cozy, and I had a little plate of Christmas treats, goodies like cinnamon stars and almond windmills and vanilla peppermint pretzels. It was magical.

I have some other posts coming up, but I thought this would be a good one to kick things off.

Happy Holidays everyone.

Books, Screens, and In-Betweens

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized11 Comments

Hello everyone! I am linking up with Deb at Readerbuzz,  Kathryn at Book Date, and  Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer.

The Books:

As for reading, I gave it my best, but I was defeated. I had a DNF. The Hogfather. I am going to try again next year, after learning more about Discworld. Lisa’s (at Boondock Ramblings) husband suggested I start with The Color of Magic instead, then read the Death line of books first. So, I will give it another shot!

Sorry Hogfather. We will try again next year.

This week I am reading the next in the J. Penner Adenashire series, A Fellowship of Games of Fables. I love Jez so I am excited to read her story! And, I must like these books because I almost never read past book one in a series!

The Screens:

So, we have been watching all the Christmas and holiday things we can find. We watched all the episodes of the Victorian Farm Christmas, Tudor Farm Christmas, A Garfield Christmas, and Bramble House Christmas, which is a Hallmark Christmas movie. I of course loved it. We also watched Paddington for the first time and realized, Billy is Paddington in person form! Ok, he just has a Paddington style coat, and loves orange marmalade. Everything we watched was perfect.

I also was busy blogging away.

Top Ten Tuesday: December Dragons

My Favorite Quotes From Every Book I Read This Year: Part One

Comfy Cozy Christmas and A Good Book and a Cup of Tea Link Up Post

Soup and Story Saturday

The In-Betweens:

It was a slow week around here. It was not only arctic cold out, but Wyatt was feeling under the weather. So we took it easy, especially since he had a big appointment with the orthopedic surgeon on Friday. The surgeon is very pleased with Wyatt’s healing, and has decided it is now time to schedule the next surgery, this one to remove the hardware they put into Wyatt to hold his hips in place as he healed. I am so not ready for another surgery, but he said springtime, and that it will be an easier recovery.

We also got lots of Christmas shopping done, mainly via the internet but Wyatt and I also took a secret trip to pick up a gift for Billy. I won’t say what it is here but I am excited. Saturday we also masked up and went to something called Echoes of a French Noel at the River Raisin National Battlefield near us, and had such a great time. Then this morning I went to the Potter’s Market with Chrissy and Kelly. I will do a coffee catch up post later this week, but we had so much fun!

Tonight we are having a comfy cozy movie night, with hot chocolate and treats in front of the little fake fireplace tonight, and I am so excited!

And that is it from me for now! I hope that whatever you do, you do something that makes you happy!

My Sunday-Monday Post

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized22 Comments

My Sunday Post is hosted by Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer

Sunday Salon is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date

Hello everyone! I hope that you are all doing well! Last week was a busy one for us, but we had a lot of fun with family. I spent most of Wednesday baking and it was wonderful. I had my little assistant with me for part of it, which was nice as well. Today we are decorating for Christmas which makes me happy! We even have snow for it!

Read Last Week:

This was such a light read and perfect for a busy week. I didn’t like it as much as I liked the first in the series, but it was ok. I did love that there was a baby dragon. I am still planning on reading the next one in the series in December.

Reading This Week:

Last night we had our first big snowstorm of the year, and it felt like the perfect night to start Hogfather. I’ve been wanting to try Terry Prachett and this seemed like a fun one to start with.

Posted Last Week:

A Cozy Little Life: Vintage Cookbooks and Leaning Analog

Christmas Gift Guide: Etsy Favorites

Soup and Story Saturday

Watching:

We are not watching too much, at least last week. We finished up the Bake Off, and I think that was it. We did watch Mickey’s Christmas Carol with Wyatt, because I wanted to kick off holiday movie watching. And since then he has put it on a least fifty more times. Lol. Tonight we are going to watch another movie. We have them all in a jar and Wyatt draws a name and that is what we watch. Always a surprise now! I do plan on adding in other holiday movies from Hallmark, or that are for adults – the ones in the jar are kid movies.

Around the Interwebs:

Lisa from Boondock Ramblings and I are also beginning our Comfy Cozy Christmas Link Up! Comfy Cozy Christmas isn’t just about Christmas, it is anything holiday related – any December holiday – at all that strikes your fancy and you write about this month. Movies, books, traditions, activities. I am excited to read them! This link should be up today!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter
https://fresh.inlinkz.com/js/widget/load.js?id=c0efdbe6b4add43dd7ef

Also, just a reminder that Lisa hosts a monthly linky, that I help with, called A Good Book and a Cup of Tea. Make sure to link up any book related posts! We love to hear!

And that is it from around here today! I hope that whatever you do today, you do something that makes you smile!

My Sunday-Monday Post

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized33 Comments

My Sunday Post is hosted by Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer

Sunday Salon is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date

Hello everyone!! I hope that you are all doing well. We had a pretty good week here last week, just a few bumps but mostly good. Today we are working on some projects around here before heading to my cousin’s house for a family get together of cousins, which my cousin hosts once a month. I love that our kids are growing up around each other!

Read Last Week:

I loved both of these books. How to Talk to Your Succulent is a middle-grade graphic novel, and deals with loneliness, grief, and the importance of open and honest communication, in a very whimsical and magical way.

I knew I had to read Shady Hollow. I love anthropomorphic animal stories, and the main character is a fox to boot? This book was really well-written, and I feel like I learned a bit about the process of journalism as well while reading (with a little extra clarification from Lisa). All in all, a very good cozy mystery, full of woodland creatures!

Reading This Week:

This week I am reading A Fellowship of Librarians and Dragons by J. Penner! I am looking forward to it; I mean, just look at all those cozy cute images on the cover! I want a unicorn teapot! And cinnamon rolls! And a dragon!

Posted Last Week:

Top Ten Tuesday: Modern Books I Think Might Be Future Classics

Christmas Gift Guide For Kids: Gifts Wyatt has Loved

Mini-Book Reviews: The Enchanted Greenhouse, A Land So Wide, and Goblin Mode

Friday Morning Coffee Catch Up

Soup and Story Saturday

Watching:

Billy and I have been watching The Great British Bake Off all week. It always makes us both want to bake! This time it was Billy’s turn, and he made a savory monkey bread last night that was delicious. It was filled with cotswold cheese and was so good. He is going to make a version for Thanksgiving and I am excited. He is going to add olives which I think will be the perfect touch.

Wyatt and I also prepped for Christmas movie watching! We decided to put all the names of the movies we want to watch into a jar and every time we are going to watch one, Wyatt will draw that night’s movie.

Around the Internets:

Just a reminder that Lisa hosts a monthly linky, that I help with, called A Good Book and a Cup of Tea. Make sure to link up any book related posts! We love to hear!

A Good Book and A Cup of Tea Bookish Link Up For November

Also, we will be hosting Comfy Cozy Christmas starting the day after Thanksgiving! Anything holiday related – any December holiday – at all that strikes your fancy and you write about, please think about sharing on our linky – and I hope I can get it working again on my blog before then! Again, we love to hear everyone’s stories!

And that is it from me today! I hope that whatever you do, you do something that makes you smile!

My Sunday-Monday Post

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized28 Comments

My Sunday Post is hosted by Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer

Sunday Salon is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date

Hello everyone!! It is snowing here! Our first snow of the year! I always feel like it is my personal gift from Mother Nature when it is around my birthday, which is next week. I am very Lorelai Gilmore about snow, especially the first snow. Tonight I am going to make soup and if I can, I am going to try to make cinnamon rolls for the first time as well.

What I Read Last Week:

This book was the perfect pick me up, full of cozy moments, snow, soup, and winged cats. I loved it!

Reading This Week:

I had started Shady Hollow when I finished The Enchanted Greenhouse, so I am reading that, but I also want to read A Land so Wide.

Posted Last Week:

Hello November

Good Book and a Cup of Tea Monthly Link Party

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Randomly Grabbed Off the Shelf

Introducing Soup and Story Saturdays

Comfy Cozy Cinema: The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill and Came Down a Mountain

Friday Morning Coffee Catch Up

Watching:

Billy and I must be craving cozy, because we have started our umpteenth rewatch of the BBC farm shows. We just finished up Victorian Farm again, and will probably move on to Edwardian Farm next. The hold these shows have on us! Lol. I am not the only one though. I found this reel on Instagram and it made me giggle. I even commented about how we love to watch this show, blah blah, and a bunch of people liked my comment, probably because they are the same!

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Tonight we are watching the last movie in our Comfy Cozy Cinema line up, The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry. Then after American Thanksgiving, we will begin our Comfy Cozy Christmas link party where you can all feel free to spread the holiday cheer, all winter holidays in December btw, not just Christmas, by linking up your holiday posts! With the snow today, I can feel the winter holiday season so clearly now!

Internet Happenings:

I’ve already talked about them all a little, but Lisa and I are hosting Comfy Cozy Cinema, then Comfy Cozy Christmas together. We are also co-hosting A Good Book and a Cup of Tea, which is a monthly book linky for anything book related. And finally, I am introducing my new Soup and Story Saturdays. It is, you guessed it, all about soup! Link your posts about a soup you made or have eaten, a recipe if you made it, and either a bit about the book you are reading, or a story you want to tell us about your own life. Pretend we are at dinner together, having a meal and sharing a tale. Because I want to be a hobbit with you guys.

I also just signed up for the Library Love 2025 Challenge – I guess better late than never. I will be watching for next year’s sign up now though, if it continues. 99% of our reads come from the library and I believe wholeheartedly in supporting your local library!

And that is it from me today! I hope that whatever you do, you do something that makes you smile!

My Last Christmas Coffee Catch Up of 2024

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized24 Comments

Hello everyone!! This time in between Christmas and New Year is always so weird. I never really want to start anything new and I feel sort of stuck. Lol. It’s like a limbo time. It isn’t helping that it is super gloomy out these past few days (weeks?) Anyway, we had a wonderful holiday with family the past week.

Last Saturday we spent Christmas at my dad’s. It is always so relaxed and chill. They order food, we all sit around and watch the kiddos open their gifts, and that is about it. The kids sort of have the run of the house and do what they want and make messes and play and eat all the candy…

It was a wonderful day!

Then the next few days I spent in a flurry of baking and cleaning, as I am sure many of us did.

Christmas Eve, we went to Billy’s brother’s house for dinner and to hang out with everyone. The kids opened their gifts and played together, and it was a blast. I have awesome pictures but they do not wish their kids to be on the internet, and I am more than happy to respect their wishes.

Christmas Day started early, at 6:30 am when Wyatt got up. Billy and I stumbled out the family room with Wyatt and watched him happily open his gifts. We also exchanged our gifts to each other as well. ( He got me two of the books that I wanted!)

Then we had a little time to sit around and relax because my family wasn’t coming until 4. We were making a slow cooker pot roast, macaroni and cheese, cresecent rolls (I even made a baby size one for the Hurricane), and a winter fruit salad so we didn’t even have to spend the whole day cooking. The winter fruit salad was amazing by the way. Pear, apple, clementines, pomegranate seeds, and it was supposed to have kiwi but I didn’t get them with my order and forgot to get them later. I would say though that it didn’t need it. I am probably going to make it all winter long.

Before long my other nieces descended upon us, along with my brother and SIL, and my mom. We ate, the kids opened gifts – you guys know the drill. It was a lovely evening and I had so much fun with the kids.

I fell into bed that night, full of happy feelings, joy, and exhaustion. I had big plans for the next day – to do not one thing. And I didn’t.

I totally relaxed 100% on Thursday. Wyatt played with all of his new stuff, and I did too. I flipped through my new books, played with the new markers that were in my stocking from Santa, and just totally goblinmoded out. Wyatt was cracking me up taking photos of his books….I wonder who he was emulating? Lol.

Friday Billy was home! He took a few extra vacation days, although we have no idea what we are going to do. Maybe nothing! Yesterday we drove down to an antique store in Ohio and I picked up some cast iron rabbits and sent a bunch of pictures to my friend Kelly who also wanted to go to this antique store. She had a few things she was looking for. We also went to my favorite plant store, The Conservatory, but didn’t pick anything up this time, although they did give Wyatt a few stickers. Next we went to our favorite local fish store, to buy some little plants for the frogs, Hurkle and Durkle, and then ended up at the local book store down the street because of a certain little boy’s request. He picked up a used copy of an Avi book because to him when we say we are going shopping he thinks that means for books.

We were hoping to stop at the zoo but it was cold and raining so we opted for home and pizza instead. I painted my nails with the very sparkly polish Wyatt gave me for Christmas, we watched some tv, and that was that! Which brings us to right this very moment, Saturday morning, typing this up.

I hope that you all had a wonderful week, and that whatever you do today, that you do something that makes you smile.

My Sunday-Monday Post!

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized31 Comments

My Sunday Post is hosted by Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer

Sunday Salon is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date

Hello everyone! I hope the last week has treated you well. I know that this can be a fun time of year, but it can also be a very difficult one as well. If you are struggling and need someone to chat with, my Instagram chat is always open. (@foxandfirthco)

We celebrated Christmas with my dad last night, and we had such a fantastic time. The kids had a blast which in turn made all of us adults happy as well. They were just perfectly kids at Christmas, you know? Eating all the junk, playing, making a mess, laughing.. all those good things.

Wyatt and the Hurricane. She wanted to draw just like her big cousin. It was adorable.

My reading has been in the bin this past week. And I have read nothing Christmas! However I did read this one.

It took place at the time of Winter Solstice so it maybe counts. I love this series and I think young Erin would have definitely connected with this character.

Reading this Week:

I am slowly reading. It may take me two weeks with the holidays and all the things I need to do still. And at bedtime I just zonk out I am so whipped. But I am reading! And oo, I just realized it is Christmas! So I am reading a Christmas book!

This is such a cool series.

Posted Last Week:

Christmas Coffee Catch Up: Gingerbread and Zoo Lights!

Comfy Cozy Christmas: What We Have Been Watching

Top Ten Tuesday: My 2024-2025 Winter TBR

And I am woefully behind on visiting blogs. I hope to do that tomorrow morning!

Watching:

Billy and I have been watching a lot of Christmas movies lately. When we don’t, we are watching Murdoch Mysteries or the Great British Bake Off. We have two movies left on our list, the Muppet Christmas Carol and Emmett Otter’s Jug Band Christmas. I can’t wait!

Lisa from Boondock Ramblings and I are planning some Cozy Crafternoons on Zoom in January and February, to beat those winter blahs that happen late winter after Christmas. We are thinking we will have maybe two per month, so four in total. We will just all meet up on the date and time, and individually work on whatever we want – embroidery, coloring, knitting, crocheting, jewelry making, etc, while chatting or you could even have the sound off and just feel part of the group without the chatter, if you like it quiet. It is sort of open and flexible but also social. I will probably be stitching away – my friend has requested a small pillow with an embroidered possum on it, so I will be working on that in January for a while. Anyway, if you are interested in learning more send an email either to me at crackercrumblife@gmail.com or to Lisa at lisahoweler@gmail.com. That way we will also have your email for the zoom link! Our first scheduled crafternoon is January 11th at 1 pm EST.

And that is it from me today! I hope that you are all doing well, and I wish you a happy week of winter reading and a wonderful holiday season!

Christmas Coffee Catch Up: Gingerbread and Holiday Lights!

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized19 Comments

Linking up with my and Lisa at Boondock Rambling’s

Comfy Cozy Christmas!

Hello everyone!! We have been making merry in our own way over here! I was trying to not overwhelm all of us with activities this year, and have a slower Christmas and it has been really nice. However, now as we are getting closer to the big day, I am staring to freak out just a bit! You know, all the usual things: Did I buy enough? Did I remember everyone? Will people like what we did get for them, or made for them? Maybe I took it too slow this year, did Wyatt get to do enough? Will it ever snow? What do I need for Christmas dinner? I never did get that Christmas photo of Wyatt that I wanted… And the list goes on…. I am trying to keep it all in perspective though, and enjoy the things that we are doing and not compare them to anything else.

Let’s see. Since I last posted one of these, we have done a few things.

On Saturday, we made gingerbread! I love gingerbread, Billy loves gingerbread, Wyatt loves gingerbread. We are a gingerbread kind of family! The recipe I use is from @ofbeeandbear. This recipe is amazing, and she is a wonderful, beautiful soul. Her recipe calls for types of flour, spelt and wheat; however I use all purpose and wheat, which she says is perfectly fine. Or you can make them using entirely all purpose flour. Anyway, I think her recipe is the perfect balance of the spices and chewy vs. soft, if that makes sense.

We started that morning off right as well, with pancakes, some of them plain, some cinnamon, and some ginger. It was a delicious start to the day!

After Wyatt’s medicine and nap, and a quick trip to the library, the baking commenced!

We danced and sang along to Christmas music as we baked, in the glow of our little Christmas tree, as the day itself was very gray and gloomy. We made our own sunshine though as we all had our jobs to do. I made the dough and also rolled it out, Wyatt cut the shapes, and Billy kept the assembly line from table to oven and out again rolling!

They turned out delicious, if I do say so myself. We enjoyed a few all nice and warm and freshly baked on the floor in front of the tree, and I am pretty sure Oliver was giving us the eye because he wanted some too. Sorry Oliver, geckos can’t eat gingerbread!

On Sunday, it rained all day long. Like all day. Nonstop. We had had plans to go to the Detroit Zoo for the Wild Lights, but there was no way we were going in the rain. So instead we just caught up on things around the house, which was way less fun. Our tickets were open ended thank goodness, so we decided to go to the lights on Tuesday instead. Billy worked from home that day, and when quitting time rolled around, we headed to the zoo!

We had so much fun. It was a chilly night, but not too cold, and thankfully, it was dry. Since it was a Tuesday, there weren’t even too many other people there, which made it nice, especially with a wheelchair. We really did have a blast!

I packed up a few of those gingerbread cookies before we left, and we happily nibbled on those, and shared hot pretzels as well, as we strolled through the zoo, marveling at the lights on disply!

We were enchanted right off the bat! Everything just looked so magical!

We all loved the Enchanted Trail.

There were animals made of lights surrounding us on the trail, larger than life, and glimmering, twinkling strands all overhead. I took a lot of video on the trail and not as many photos, but these are a few of the photos I took.

After we walked the Enchanted Trail, we continued around the zoo. I just loved wandering around and seeing what they had created.

We are making more cookies today and tomorrow, as well as watching a few more Christmas movies all the way up until Christmas Eve. Saturday we have Christmas with my dad, and we always have such a nice, chill, relaxed time. I am looking forward to it!

I hope that no matter what you are doing this December, you do something that makes you smile!