{ Gingerbread Extravaganza }

This month, my daughter and I enjoyed the Jacksonville Historical Society Annual Gingerbread Extravaganza. We hadn't even opened the doors to the downtown building and we could already smell the sweetness of gingerbread houses. It was a great way to spend a December afternoon. We voted on our favorite which was the house from the Disney movie, Up. Plus, I am sorta partial to that film b/c the old man is named Mr. Frederiksen which is my maiden name. But, my true favorite was the Jax Beach Life Guard Tower gingerbread display. Or maybe it was the one of Times Square that was my favorite. Ohhh! They were all awesome. I'd be a terrible Gingerbread House Judge.

The house from the Disney movie, Up. (above)

Jacksonville Beach Lifeguard house and tower (below)

My absolute favorite! How adorably cute are the sugary snowman and snowgal???? I like how they are made to resemble beach sand.

The Gingerbread display of New York's Time Square was awesome and made from 100% edible materials. Even the Broadway advertisements were printed on edible paper. The New Year's Eve glass ball made from rock candy was the perfect finishing touch. Oh, and all those little yummy gingerbread people waiting for the new year's eve countdown. How cute is that?!?

Some more impressive stuff

Obviously someone is a Hello Kitty fan like my daughter....and well, I am still a fan too.

Okay, let it be know that the cutest thing under the sun from this day forward is 2 little gummi bears in a little row boat. I mean, C'mon. It just doesn't get any cuter!.....well, except for babies, baby animals, puppies, and kittens. But after that it is gummi bears in row boats. Totally!

There were so many. I took pics of our favorites. My daughter, the Queen of Fairies and Mermaids, has total faith in my abilities as a mother because while headed home, she said she wanted me and her to make one to enter in next year's competition. We shall see.

Sealed with a Kiss, Kirsten

S.W.A.K.

{ 25 Days of Christmas---Day 25 }

"Merry Christmas to All and to All a Good Night!"

Sealed with a Kiss, Kirsten

S.W.A.K.

{ 25 Days of Christmas---Day 24 }

It's Christmas Eve! Time has flown and yet, stopping every day to blog a 25 day countdown has helped in making me stop to ponder the moments before they fly by faster than Santa's sleigh. Today has that special sense of sacredness to it. My daughter is in the children's choir at our church. We went to a very special children's Mass this evening in which she and her choir mates sang like cherubim on high. I love how formal and traditional a Christmas Eve Catholic Mass can be with all the priests of our parish, the deacons, alter boys and girls. The blessing of the manger and the Baby Jesus was especially beautiful. Afterwards, we went out to eat and had an awesome Italian dinner of mussels, clams, pasta, hazelnut crusted trout, wine, and dessert. We came home and watched A Christmas Story while Saylor kept an eye on the clock and with each passing minute her anticipation grew. In her new Christmas pajamas, coat, and slippers, she scattered food outside for the reindeer, left her shoe by the front door(a Danish Christmas tradition), and left cookies and milk for Santa. And, as if things couldn't have been more perfectly well timed, far off in the distance, as far as possible, but still visible, a flashing light was slowly moving across the sky at the same exact time that Saylor went outside to search one last time for Santa's sleigh and listen for his sleigh bells. The timing could not have been more perfect! She saw it and she hurried off to bed in a fit of giggles, squealls, and blissful excitement. This is our 5th Christmas away from family and friends in our Texas hometown of Houston. I sometimes get very nostalgic and melancholy during holidays being so far from loved-ones, and yet, at the same time, it is nice creating Christmas traditions and memories with my husband and daughter in our corner of the world.

Merry 24th Day of Christmas!

Sealed with a Kiss, Kirsten

S.W.A.K.

{25 Days of Christmas---Day 23}

"He puzzled and puzzled till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before! Maybe Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. Maybe Christmas... perhaps... means a little bit more! And what happened then? Well, in Whoville they say that the Grinch's small heart grew three sizes that day. And then - the true meaning of Christmas came through, and the Grinch found the strength of *ten* Grinches, plus two!" from Dr. Seuss--How The Grinch Stole Christmas. This is my favorite part of the story. Such pretty words and so true too!

Merry 23rd Day of Christmas to You!

Sealed with a Kiss, Kirsten

S.W.A.K.

{ 25 Days of Christmas---Day 22 }

Warm winter boots. And Ed Hardy ones to boot!

Merry 22nd Day of Christmas to You!

Sealed with a Kiss, Kirsten

S.W.A.K.



{ 25 Days of Christmas---Day 21

Paper garland. I cannot think of one time in my childhood when I have made this. I've made tons of things and yet, I don't ever recall making a simple paper garland. Every year I see it in magazines, in my daughter's classrooms, etc. and I always think that it would be enjoyable to do and then time slips away from me (especially in December) and I never get around to making it. So this year, I cut out pretty paper strips, grabbed the stapler, turned on a Christmas movie, sat down with my daughter, and we paper garland the afternoon away.

Merry 21st Day of Christmas to You!

Sealed with a Kiss, Kirsten

S.W.A.K.

{ 25 Days of Christmas---Day 20 }

Is everyone as baffled as me that Pillow Pets are the most popular toy at the moment? My kid and the kids of my friends all have one on their Christmas list. My daughter asked Santa for the Lady Bug Pillow Pet. How many times while out and about have I told my daughter to use her stuffed animal as a pillow when she gets sleepy in the backseat? Hence, a stuffed animal pillow. Why didn't I think of this concept and sell it for $19.99? The same goes for Snuggies. I've been using my robe as a blanket for years.

Merry 20th Day of Christmas to You!

Sealed with a Kiss, Kirsten

S.W.A.K.

{ 25 Days of Christmas---Day 19 }

Who cares if the snow was man made. Who cares if it was blown over the kids via a snow machine. To my daughter it is SNOW---pure, simple, magical.

Merry 19th Day of Christmas to you.

Sealed with a Kiss, Kirsten

S.W.A.K.



{ 25 Days of Christmas---Day 18 }

Without purposely doing so, it has become a little tradition of ours to go to a Live Nativity every year as part of our Christmas outings. I love live nativities and the re-enactment of the little town of Bethlehem and the night Jesus was born. It is quite endearing to see the surroundings transformed into the town of Bethlehem and people dressed up in period clothing as merchants, beggars, villagers, etc. Of course, at the time of Jesus's birth, the great census was taking place. So we as visitors all get to play the part of distant travelers who have arrived into the City of David to be "counted" for the census.

This little girl, who was part of the live nativity, looked very much the part of a local village child. It is as if she stepped right out of a Pre-Raphaelite painting.

Merry 18th Day of Christmas to You!

Sealed with a Kiss, Kirsten

S.W.A.K.



{ 25 Days of Christmas---Day 17 }

One never knows where the Elf on the Shelf will be sitting each morning.......assuming a certain someone has a good memory the night before. Happy 17th Day of Christmas! (I'm so tired, I almost put Happy 17th Birthday.)

Sealed with a Kiss, Kirsten

S.W.A.K.

{ 25 Days of Christmas---Day 16 }

Guess what I did this evening?---yup, filled out Christmas cards to drop in the mail manana. I must say, self adhesive stamps are one of the greatest inventions ever. On the flip side, I can't get over the fact that each stamp is 44 cents. Geesh!

My daughter created the artful angel at school. I think it is so adorable and I love the Christmas carol paper she chose for the angel's dress. I think the angel is singing, "Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I'm yours!"

I love filling out Christmas cards and recalling old friends and neighbors and loved ones near and far as I flip through my address book. I was also in luck because one of my all time favorite Christmas movies was on this evening---White Christmas with Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney which was perfect for an evening spent filling out Christmas cards. I'm dreaming of a white Christmas with every Christmas card I write........

Sealed with a Kiss, Kirsten

S.W.A.K.



{ 25 Days of Christmas---Day 15 }

It's that time of the year where we are bundled up, heated car seats on, heater cranked up full blast, and Christmas songs

playing on the radio.....and that's all before we have even pulled out of the driveway! Merry 15th Day of Christmas to you!

Sealed with a Kiss, Kirsten

S.W.A.K.



{ 25 Days of Christmas---Day 14 }

More than all the ornaments, more than all the pricey Christmas displays, I think the little handmade Christmas arts my daughter brings home from school are the best. I love this little clay nativity of Joseph, Mary, and Baby Jesus.

Merry 14th Day of Christmas to You!

Sealed with a Kiss, Kirsten

S.W.A.K.

{ 25 Days of Christmas---Day 13 }

Why didn't any of the 3 pigs make their house out of Gingerbread? These houses are so gosh darn hard to eat. The gingerbread walls are like cement. There is no way the big bad wolf would have blown it down. Merry 13th Day of Christmas to you!

Sealed with a Kiss, Kirsten

S.W.A.K.

{ 25 Days of Christmas---Day 12 }

A winter's day walk on the beach in the coat that Grandma made.

Merry 12 Day of Christmas to you!

Sealed with a Kiss, Kirsten

S.W.A.K.

{ 25 Days of Christmas---Day 11 }

Cinderella's Castle at Walt Disney World here in Florida is sooooo beautiful at Christmas time. The Fairy Godmother "flies" down, waves her magic wand, says a few Bibbidi Bobbidi Boos and then TADA.....the castle lights up with 1,000s of lavender Christmas lights. I want a fairy godmother. Merry 11th Day of Christmas!

Sealed with a Kiss, Kirsten

S.W.A.K.



{ 25 Days of Christmas---Day 10 }

Christmas shopping ....which always has to include trying out a gabillion perfumes. Ah-ah-ah-CHOOOO!

Merry 10th Day of Christmas to you!

Sealed with a Kiss, Kirsten

S.W.A.K.

{ 25 Days of Christmas---Day 8 }

I think my favorite part of everyday this month has been just before dinner time when we light the candles on our Advent wreath in preparation for our Savior's birth. After dinner, my daughter blows out the candles after she says a prayer to Baby Jesus. Her prayers have been so sweet and some of them quite humorous---like this evening's prayer when she prayed for a very mischievous boy in her class---except it wasn't so much a prayer, but more of a command as she said, "Dear Baby Jesus, Please make (Boy's Name) be good instead of bad."

I like how lighting the Advent wreath brings closure to the day and reminds us of the true meaning of Christmas.

Merry 8th Day of Christmas to You!

Sealed with a Kiss, Kirsten

S.W.A.K.

{Finding the Elf on the Shelf}

Last Year, we bought the super popular Elf on the Shelf . In case you are one of the very few who do not know about the Elf on the Shelf , let me explain. The Elf on the Shelf is a mother/daughter creation by Carol Aebersold, along with her daughter Chanda Bell. The Elf is a little visitor who arrives at you home in order to spy on children and report back to Santa at the North Pole. He sits somewhere visible in your home and when the children go to sleep, he sets off to the North Pole to tell Santa whether or not children are being naughty or nice. Then he returns back home before the children awake and finds a new spot. The biggest part of the fun is when children awake and search about the house looking for the Elf's new spot. My daughter loves waking up each morning to find where the Elf has moved during the night. He ends up in some of the most interesting places. Where will he end up next in our home?

Sealed with a Kiss, Kirsten

S.W.A.K.

{25 Days of Christmas---Day 7}

"Brown paper packages tied up with strings.

These are a few of my favorite things!"

Receiving Christmas packages from family in Denmark warms my heart and makes the ocean that separates us seem smaller.

Merry 7th Day of Christmas to you!

Sealed with a Kiss, Kirsten

S.W.A.K.