It's December. My favorite month, although also my most stressful...much of it self-imposed. I love ALL the Christmas traditions. My girls, being incredibly like me, especially in areas I wish they weren't, want to embrace and celebrate and duplicate every tradition, treat and song during this time of year. There are so many treats they want baked, and traditions they want to recreate, that it would take the entire month of December with doing nothing else but Christmas stuff, to bring to life their desires. On top of that, the Imp's birthday is the 22nd. She'll be 16 this year. It seems the Imp's birthday parties have always been smaller and less spectacular than her sister's. While I'm not in the camp of "what one get the other gets," I do try to be somewhat equitable. I now remember why this apparent discrepancy exists. First, the Imp is a more no-frills kind of kid, while her sister, the Singer, is always up for a production, the more frills, the better. Second, the Singer has always had a small group of close friends, making my demand for a small gathering very easy for her (invite list of 8 or less). The Imp has always been a floater. That is, she is friends with multiply people from multiple "groups". So when given the directive, "Keep it under 8 people," she can never succeed. "But if I invite Suzie, I have to invite Jane" or worse "I can't invite Jane because she hates Suzie, but I don't want Jane's group to think I like Suzie's group more..." The Imp's heart is sooo big. She is always for the underdog and works very hard at making sure no one's feelings are hurt. So many years she had only 1 or 2 friends over, or simply skipped the friends' party altogether when it came to her party. But she'll be 16 this year, and being caught in an alternate reality, I told her she could invite who she wanted. Her list was 25 people! My house isn't that big. I made her trim and trim, until she actually invited 17 people to her party. Thus far, only 1 regret. I'm not sure this was a wise decision. Additionally, the Imp decided she wanted a fancy cake....a castle cake...not like her sister's Tinkerbell castle cake of pink, but, in her words, "Think Narnia!" R...i...g...h...t...
Sample ideas. Final product some kind of combination
Then she says, "I'd like to do a craft." So we decide on making 12 sided paper ornaments out of Christmas paper. So I cut out (with a punch, not by hand) 400 circles, and mark them to be folded as pentagons. Not a small feat. Then she says, "Do you think we can make graham cracker gingerbread houses?" Uuuhh, okay? Yep, I said okay. So now I've committed to have 16 girls making gingerbread houses. So I'll be making the structures the day before, so the girls can decorate them during the party.
All while I'm making a castle cake with draw-bridge and moat (using boiled sugar water dyed blue) AND still getting ready for Christmas. Whose idea was it to have a kid 3 days before Christmas? And just so you know, she wasn't due until January 8! And while all of this sounds daunting and outlandish to many, I love doing these things, just not all at the same time. The girls are looking for me to make geiba, a homemade sweet Polish bread that takes all day. They also asked about clothespin cookies...another incredibly time-intensive endeavor. My own tradition, is that they always get something homemade from me for Christmas. I can't say what I'm making them (I just found out the Singer does occasionally read my blog as she commented that she knew what was really in the attic a few months ago), but the girls will be pleased and it required days of sewing. One day, I'll start my Christmas projects the previous March like serious crafters do, but for now, I'll cram as much as humanly possible into the 4 weeks of December.
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