Christmas at the Darancou's!

Christmas in Iowa City! I have always been a big fan of Christmas lights. I love them. But I knew if I didn't put them up this year, they would not get done. Enrique doesn't have time for that kind of stuff. Anyway, I put them up myself. You might not be able to tell from the picture but I think they turned out so cute!

Persuading Enrique to leave his studying for a couple of hours so we could go pick out our Christmas tree was ... well part of being a wife of a dental student. :) I tried to be quick about it. The first tree we saw, I said it was great and we bound it up and threw it in the back of our miraculously still running rodeo. When we got home we tried to show the trunk of the tree into the tree stand- it wasn't going to happen. No, problem, I will just drive right back to Lowes (even though we had just come from there) and get a new one. When I got back from Lowes we discovered the branches on the bottom of the tree needed to be trimmed before it would fit into the stand. Realizing we didn't own a saw, we used steak knifes to saw the branches off. Enrique wasn't to happy by this time. His allotment of Christmas tree time was way past due and he wanted to get back to studying. But he was a good sport and it was worth it because now our tree looks like this!

Finished Christmas tree!

Well, I come from a long line of passionate bakers. My grandma and her sister grew up in the depression and learned to make something out of nothing. These two women mastered the art of Gingerbread houses 50 plus years ago. Every year at Christmas time my mom, as a young girl, would watch and learn the trade of gingerbread houses. As a little girl, I followed suit, I took my turn in learning the cherished family tradition.

As much as we love the finished gingerbread house, the process of making one doesn't always go so smooth. No matter how "small" we say we are going to make the house, it always ends up that the kitchen, house and family are neglected for about a week. Although, every year my mom would curse and swear this year is the last year she would ever make a gingerbread house, we were always able to talk her into making one next year. In fact, even though we are all grown up, she is still making them today. And she told me this year is the last year she will make one. We will see........

To me, the smell of gingerbread is the smell of Christmas.

Merry Christmas!