Time Outs and Gingerbread

So, Grace had her first "time out" the other night. No, I would never send a 1-year-old to time out (pointless) but she ended up there anyways. We decorated our Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving. Ever since, Grace has made it her goal to un-decorate it daily. Seriously, you should see my poor tree. By the end of the day, the ENTIRE bottom half of the tree is bare. The first time it happened, I asked Adam to hang all of the ornaments back UP at the end of the day. He hung them ALL (about 30) on 2 branches. I SO wish I was kidding. So, I had a half-naked tree with one spot of dense ornaments. Lovely. Since, I've just put a basket by the tree. As I find the ornaments around the house, I toss them in there, and re-decorate when I can. ANYWAYS (do I go off on tangents or what???) the other night, Mike was home to witness her literally grabbing and throwing them as fast as she could. He joked, "Grace, go to time out." She paused. Her eyes got huge. She laughed, clapped her hands, and gleefully went over and sat in time out (the hallway). She sat there, clapping and laughing. She ws THRILLED to be in time out. Mike and I couldn't stop laughing. It was like she's seen the hundred of times that Adam has been there, and has been awaiting the privilege. It was hilarious. Now, anytime she does anything wrong, she goes over and sits herself down. I'm pretty sure she's deliberately doing naughty things so she can go there.

We made our gingerbread houses last night. It was a blast! Yes, there is frosting all over my walls. And yes, there is sprinkles permanately ground into my carpet. And yes, my kids were on sugar overload and wouldn't sleep last night. But, it was a LOT of fun! I love the house that Teresa made. It is adorable. It's definitely something I want to do every year. And, I've got some great ideas for traditions (talking to friends and looking around on the Internet). I've decided we are going to go to a live nativity (tonight, our stake's putting it on), camp out under the Christmas tree one night, read a different Christmas book every night, watch at least 1 holiday movie together, act out the nativity, bring Christmas cookies to our friends, go look at Christmas lights, and I'm looking at a few others. I found this blog through my friend Heather and she is SO cute and is posting a different tradition to do daily, so I'm going to use a few of hers. So fun.

Hope you are all having a great week! I'll post pictures of the nativity later. It should be fun.