Still celebrating Christmas...and more!

Happy New Year!
I find it funny that people spend more than a month getting ready for Christmas and then boom! it's over. No wonder people feel let down! Although there is a wonderful clearing out feeling about the New Year as well; but I will postpone that for another few days, even as things get a bit droopy.
Today is, as you know, the tenth day of Christmas. We keep Christmas for as long as we can stand it :) There are the twelve days, of course, culminating in Little Christmas, or Epiphany, on the 6th.
Or, as kids gradually leave to go back to their respective homes, jobs, and schools, on whichever day we can squeeze it in, probably tomorrow. And it lasts until the Baptism of the Lord, January 11th this year. That's a long time to ponder the birth of our Savior. One day just isn't enough!
This year we kept up a few traditions, notably making a gingerbread creation on a few days after Christmas day and having it ready for display on New Year's Eve at our big party.
Usually I dread this activity, because the kids are incredibly intense and creative and it becomes an all-out, see-how-much-of-the-kitchen-and-environs-we-can-coat-with-sugar event. If one's kitchen is already hardly presentable, it can be overwhelming.
Here's a picture from a couple of years ago of the Victorian train station, being admired by young'uns but having been prepared by the most serious of older folk:
Do not attempt this with little children. This project must only be undertaken with the assistance of several teenage or older girls, none of whom has permission to go anywhere while the construction is underway. Moms just stand back, hoping to reclaim the surfaces long enough to feed people something other than licorice and gum drops.
This year I encouraged it, just to enjoy the goodness of the background that we have been blessed with this year. It was still overwhelming. We actually rearranged furniture to get the job done.
The theme was Venice. The challenge was to get it all on one board.

I realize that in a picture this is sort of a kaleidoscopic mishmash of candy rioting with gingerbread, but it's hard to do it justice photographically. Or else it really does look like this.
Note the gondola (courtesy of Bridget) and the bridge.
And another gondola beyond...
Just like the real thing, no?
This is not St. Mark's. It's an ecclesiastical monument to frustration in gingerbread. But it's done!
The pine needles are dropping like...pine needles, but we are keeping Christmas in our hearts!
And, if you would like to see some fabulous news about one of the daughters, go here!