Christmas Creations

Grandma came over in the week to make Christmas Cookie Ornaments with the girls, using a variation of a salt-dough recipe we used when I was a girl. Ornaments from that batch still proudly hang on our trees 30 years later, so they were very sturdy.

On Saturday morning, we joined a dozen friends of Colleen at her house, where Rigo's tia (auntie) taught us the time-honored tradition of making a gigantic batch of tamales for Christmas.

With Tia Tami providing the red sauce and pork, and green sauce and chicken, we made the masa and wrapped it all together in the corn husks. We went home with about two dozen delicious tamales. 

After making tamales, Cora went out with the other children and found a broken sprinkler line for Rigo. She's helpful like that.

(Yes, that is knee-deep mud she's sloshing in. We had to hose her down before she could get back into the car!)

We then spent the afternoon at our friend Rachael's house, where she had set up a gingerbread house-making party. Violet and Cora had a great time decorating their houses and then playing with friends.

Violet wanted a balcony off her roof, so Oliver helped her make it.

Don't they look great?

In the evening, I went to the Mom2Mom Christmas Cookie Exchange party, where I brought along three dozen Christmas crinkles. It's been a full week of Christmas creating!