Happy Groundhog Day!

Hi everyone!

I know I haven't posted in like forever, but I really, really wanted to post about the winter holidays, so let's get down to business.

December 8th or so, my mom and I had a crazy [not like that is unusual] Saturday. So I am going to take it slowly:

First, we went to Habitat for a gingerbread house making workshop where the pastry chef showed us how to use the icing-squeezy-thingy. They pre-made these cute little gingerbread houses that you were supposed to ice and decorate. The cool thing was you didn't have to  bring your own candy! Instead they had a big long table covered in all sorts of delicious candy that you could cover your house with. You might be wondering if we got hungry or not? Well the answer is yes, they probably anticipated this because they had fresh Habitat cookies for us to eat. THANK YOU Sous Chef Agustin Oliva for inviting us - we had a blast!

****  Here is a picture of the gingerbread house adventure ****

Me with my gingerbread house at Habitat, half way done!

 And . . . the finished product at home!

Next, we went to the Matress Factory for Member Appreciation Day (we're members and it is one of our favorite places in Pittsburgh). We were volunteer gift wrappers for the people who purchased gifts in the best museum store in town (where we do a lot of our Holiday shopping). Unfortunately, there wern't many presents to wrap during our shift, but we wrapped our purchases and also Sam's the really nice woman at the shop counter, who is also a great earring maker (my mom LOVES the earrings I gave her for Christmas, Sam, thank you!).

 **** Our Mattress Factory Adventures **** 

Me, at the wrapping station . . .

Me, in the window overlooking Winifred Lutz's garden at the Mattress Factory with beautiful views of the garden below (below) and the Northside neighborhood beyond . . . .

Finally, we got to our last stop, Handmade Arcade at the convention center. Handmade Arcade was founded in Pittsburgh and has been going on for ten years. This year we finally made it after missing the last two years. The Arcade was in this big loud room, packed with people (not like we hadn't expected that). We walked through the Arcade trying to remember the things (crafts, t-shirts, posters, etc.) we wanted to come to and how to get there. After awhile it was just "same old, same old" and we went back to the places we remembered and the others . . . oh well. I bought a Christmas present for my mom, but at the time she didn't know. I also got some Christmas presents for the rest of my family, an ornament for our tree, as well as a note book for me from Kara Skylling, who was one of my art teachers at the museum last summer.

 **** Here are some pictures from the rest of my holiday season ****

 

The Christmas ornament boxes emerge . . .

Me, intently decorating our Christmas cookies . . .

 

Writing my letter to Santa, at my desk on Christmas Eve . . .

Our Christmas tree with Christmas loot . . . .

 Let the Christmas feasting begin!

Me, in my Aunt's sun room in New Jersey, reading Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick. Let me tell you, I'm the world's biggest reader and this book is, like, my favorite book! Look it up, get it, read it!