STIDOLPHland: Rewind part two

Birthdays, parties, Christmas, winter vacation activities … We crammed as much as we could into December. Here’s a brief recap.

I’m not sure anybody outside of my immediate family understands this, but I’ll try and explain. Below is my brother at about the same age Harrison is now.

To live with Harrison is like reliving my childhood with my younger brother Rob. They both are intensively creative individuals who can spin a yarn worthy of an oscar and generally march to their own drums. I simply could not resist recreating my brother’s “May the Birthday Force be with You” cake.

If you have been a recipient of a treasured and annual Stidolph Christmas ornament, you probably noticed it’s absence this year. Well, we didn’t actually get around to making them until after Christmas. I don’t know why I didn’t think of this before now. The holiday craziness was finished, but school was still out for vacation and we were all getting bored. Time to make ornaments.

There was much painting … glueing and glittering …

resulting in one HUGE mess, but some amazing ornaments. The hands down favorite is “Mr. Bedi, the reindeer.” If I can get over my selfishness I might just send it to the real Mr. Bedi for whom this inspired.

Another fun day during vacation, we managed to squeeze in an afternoon of cookie making. Again a major mess in the aftermath, but we made great memories that day. Hopefully you will receive one in your Christmas package next year. A quick warning though. The boys REALLY liked using the glitter. A LOT.

Even though I tried to explain that we were giving these cookies to friends, so we shouldn’t nibble or lick our fingers while working, there were many cookies missing heads …

Watch Maclin spoon the icing,