Dot, aunt Nancy, Terry, George and Rachel came over for gingerbread making and decorating. We had loads of fun! Thanks to Terry coming over on Friday and helping roll out, bake and assemble, we were more "together" and had more time for actual decorating. Still, time flew! I decided at the last minute to make another batch and whip off some small houses.. but miscounted, and ended up missing a roof. oops! After a little brainstorming, we tried hershey's bars as a substitute for the roof. It worked rather well, though it took a few dozen bars to open a pack that wasn't at all broken. Oh well.. the broken ones somehow disappeared. In spite of our best efforts, Elliott ate WAAAY too much candy. After he got tired of decorating, he played with Rachel on the swing, and had fun twirling around and around, with a little help from Dada. He asked for "more.. more.. more!" right up until the minute he started heaving. Sigh. The good news is that most of the candy didn't really make it through his system.. but it was a tough lesson to learn. No more eating 4 lbs of candy and then spinning super fast. Thanks to Rachel for getting him to the bathroom!
Lorelei checking out a jingle bell	oooh! Lorelei checks out the tablecloth her great grandma cross-stitched	Rachel and Elliott do a little spinning as a warm-up (they are nuts!)
everyone getting down to business	Terry cheerfully whipping up another batch of frosting	Rachel and Elliott decorating his house
Nan expertly finishing her chocolatey roof	close-up of Elliott's masterpiece	another one riiiight here!
Mike, Roofmaster	Lorelei discovers Nan's pin and is determined to eat it	Elliott giving them a spin
Wee! (you can only tell by his hair how fast they were going) - I left out the hurl pictures after this....	the village completed - from left to right, Mike's house, Dot's house, various trees and people, Terry's house, Elliott's house, Nan's house (I - Jess - did trees and things, helped Terry with her house, and added some more to our house at the end)	from another angle, you can see the angel/butterfly fellow Rachel decorated
	Lorelei loves Nana	Happy girl!
Babe and her admirers	Terry and Rachel before they left	ticklish belly rasberries
Haha, Dada's so funny!	Lorelei trying to crawl!	Almost... stay tuned!
trying to get back to sitting again - sometimes she can do it!	a favorite activity - making towers and watching Babe knock them down (we did this for hours, because I was sick as a dog and couldn't do much else that day!)	Lorelei "helping" to wrap
Lorelei gets a quick bath after getting a little rash from swiping a clementine out of my hand and devouring it. oops! Bad mama, but she LOVED it, so I let her have it. We'll hold off on citrus until later now that we know her skin can't handle it.	oooh, water!	watching Elliott
splashing	happy baby, as usual!	a huge truck I saw on the road - what IS it?!?
see the spikes pointing to the right, on the bed? What could it be for? They're HUGE!	"It's NOT funny!" (Elliott put the bowl on her head)	Lorelei [not actually] eating carrots and cheerios (she's still not impressed with food)
Elliott loves his new hat from Grandma Lucy - he even brought it up to bed with him!	Overexposed babe, but look at those baby blues!	Lorelei wrestles with the ribbon from her present
Look what I found!	Ahh, so that's what it's for - eating!a	Haha! Hat! (she kept swiping it off her head)
Score! (hat removal successful)	ahh, not again! (hint: I was holding both of her arms down - haha!)	Elliott "helps" get her hat back on - and so the photo shoot ends
Wow, nice tower! (all the double blocks are in it!!!)	compression stack	sick Mike rests with his Teddy Cat
Elliott trying to be cheerful, though he's really coming down with a nasty cold