2020 has been a year for the record books. As the year comes to a close and you reflect on all that has happened, I hope that you are able to see a bounty of blessings. Sometimes they’re harder to spot, but when we try, we can find reasons to be thankful.

As always, I’m thankful for this little community on the internet. We’re all here because of some health trouble we’ve experienced and are working hard to overcome. It’s not always easy and there are setbacks, but two steps forward and one step back is still progress.

As I pop in to wish you a Merry Christmas, I thought I’d share some pictures of the gingerbread house my family made this weekend. With my husband working from home, we’ve been able to include him in more of our festivities and it’s been so wonderful.

For this house, I used my Gingerbread cookie recipe as written (included below). We made a simple 5 inch x 5 inch cardboard template and cut out 6 pieces of all the same size. I made sure to bake them a little bit longer so they would be sturdy. I also trimmed the pieces using the same template as soon as they came out of the oven so the edges would be sharp. I made old fashioned royal icing with egg whites and powdered sugar (apparently, in addition to toilet paper, there is a nationwide shortage of meringue powder). I sent the kids to the dollar store with cash to buy whatever candy they thought would make good additions to our house, which they thought was a blast. Since my son now has his driver’s license, these little freedoms are super exciting. For all of us!

Some large gluten free pretzels, cut down to size, filled in the ends of our roof line and added to the “log cabin in the woods” theme my daughter envisioned.

And I’m proud to tell you that the house stood uneaten for all of three hours! Now, most of that was because the kids were at youth group! Ha! Some people make their gingerbread masterpieces and then leave them up all season, but not us. We dive in and enjoy.

If you have a little time on your hands and want a fun project, I highly recommend this one. Play the Christmas music, dance and be silly, and just enjoy each other. One more thing we did this season that was super fun – while decorating our gingerbread men, one of my kids suggested we each decorate one like someone else in the family. We all laughed hysterically at our creations.

Merry Christmas to you and yours. May you find the joy of the season that comes from our very best gift ever, Jesus!