Christmas break

There are lots of things happening at The Happy Ones over Christmas break.  Tom is working on a big weekend warrior project that he has the benefit of stretching into a week instead of just working on it over the weekend.  Maybe when we were younger and didn't have kids we would have thought to finish it in a weekend (a long weekend).  And while he's working on this project, which may be a Christmas present for the kids and might be debuted on the blog sometime after Christmas (even though the kids of course know about it), I've been in charge of watching the kids and keeping them happy while occasionally keeping them out of Tom's hair.

We know that ONE DAY our kids will provide more labor than the effort that's required to supervise them, but we are not yet there.  But we keep working on it, knowing it will happen ONE DAY.  In the meantime, there are lots of obtuse questions that keep Tom from using his brain properly.  But the project is still going to be a masterpiece, even with the obtuse questions!

Anyway, I know what you really want to see is pictures, so here's what we did yesterday:

Since there were two boys awake during quiet time (first time before Christmas at this home), I decided that I would decorate the gingerbread house and the boys would each decorate their own graham cracker houses.  I did this in the interest of stress reduction.  If you have children, you know why.

Tom let the boys help with the special project today.  You cannot imagine the chaos in the four hours that preceded this picture...yes, it involved paint in places that paint was not supposed to be.  Can you guess what this is a part of?

Tomorrow, I plan that we will bake and decorate Christmas cookies (Tom will especially need the boys out of his hair then).  I hope to not have to go shopping anymore until after Christmas...if I tell you that, will it mean I won't do it?  Oops, I forgot, I haven't shopped for Christmas dinner yet.