You can't see them too well, but in the picture below are 2 dead mice! One is black above the center and the other is in the middle on top of the green logo. Anyway, they are dead and that's the way we like mice.
We were sitting in the living room around Christmas when we heard a scratching sound from by the coffer. It was in the attic and it sounded like something was scratching around like it was digging in the insulation. We listened to it and then it went away. The next day, we heard scratching in the ceiling in our kitchen above the oven. We concluded that we had some friends in our attic who needed to be gone.
I went to Lowe's and bought some mouse traps along with some bait that they guaranteed would be irresistible to mice. Bryan grabbed the ladder, climbed in the attic, and set 8 traps to see what we could catch. The next day he climbed back up in the attic and found that we had caught/killed 2 mice. The other traps were untouched.
We did discover something fascinating/gross about mice. The first trap Bryan found didn't have any of the bait left in it but it had a dead mouse. The second trap had all the bait and a dead mouse. The conclusion we drew was that the first mouse was caught and killed so the second mouse ate the rest of the bait and then went in search of more food and got himself caught.
So the saying is true: The second mouse gets the cheese!
But the second mouse shouldn't have gotten greedy and he would have been alive longer.
Anyway, we have checked the traps a few times since then and there aren't any more mice so we think there were only 2 and we got them. Bryan also set traps in the basement but we hadn't gotten anything in those. We are hoping our house is mouse-free now!
Courtney mentioned that this year didn't feel like Christmas. I think part of it is because Ethan isn't here. But she mentioned that she would really like a white Christmas. We had thought about going someplace for Christmas, to get a change of scenery, but we didn't want to mess with Covid stuff so we decided to stay home. But Bryan and I wanted to do something special for Courtney and make it fun.
We came up with the idea of making it snow in our house (not real snow, but fake stuff). I did some research and we decided to make snow that hung from our ceiling. We spent a couple of days making the strings of snow. We used a piece of 12-foot fishing line. We threaded white pompoms and cotton balls on clear thread which we then tied to the fishing line. I had gone to the library and used their die cut machine to cut out snowflakes. We attached those, using tape, to the clear thread but then Bryan realized it was tangling the lines up so we decided to put those on after the fishing line was strung on the ceiling.
We set an alarm and woke up at midnight to put everything together. We strung some Christmas icicle lights from the coffer in our living room (thanks to the new outlet up there) so they would dangle over the lip into the room. Then we strung the fishing line across the ceiling.
I also bought bags of pillow filling and we put that around like it was snow. I think it turned out really fun.
Christmas morning Courtney was up at 6 am to go out and look at what Santa had brought her. I was so excited to see her face and hear her delight at seeing the snow coming down from the ceiling. This is what we got...
So disappointing. She was too short to notice that things were hanging over her head and she was so focused on what was on the couch that she didn't look up. Oh well, when she did see it she was impressed.
Christmas morning went well. Courtney got a Minky Couture blanket from Santa. She was really excited about that one. She got a shower curtain, towels, candy, books, and some other things. It was a fun morning.
Ethan had made us some glass fingertip bowls with an inactive member in his area. The member shipped them to us and we got to open them. I was really impressed by them.
At 7 am Ethan called. We got to talk to him and then he opened his Christmas presents with us on the video call with him. He said it was weird to be the only one opening gifts but it was fun to watch. He was spoiled by members in his ward and by people from our ward and family. I was grateful that people thought of him and tried to help make his day special.
After talking to him for a while we let him to go open gifts with his companion and go to an activity with his Zone.
It was a different type of Christmas, but it was a good one.
Our Christmas Eve traditions are usually about the same every year. We spend the day relaxing, we get Pizza Hut for dinner, we read stories, we play the chimes (which we skipped this year because we weren't sure how well it would go with only 3 of us), we open Christmas pjs, we read the Christmas story, and then we go to bed.
It was the same this year. Courtney was excited to open her pjs although she knew what they looked like. I have long abandoned buying her clothes without her picking them out. I learned that they would go to waste. So I let her pick them out. This year she got pjs that coordinated with the ones she picked out for Ethan. That was fun!
I found a recipe online for "construction grade gingerbread houses." Apparently, the gingerbread that you make to eat isn't strong enough to construct a good house. So they have some that is construction grade which you can sand down so it has smooth surfaces. Crazy stuff.
Anyway, I got the recipe and make a couple of houses. I cut the pieces out, cooked them, and let them dry for a couple of days. Then I made royal icing (really thick royal icing) and put the houses together. The key, I read on one website, was to have the icing be between both walls. In other words, don't put the icing on the piece and then push the two pieces flush together. Make sure that there is icing between the pieces. Then you let them sit for a couple of days to harden.
It actually worked out great. They were solid. I did have a bit of a gap in the roof of one of the houses. But this is only our first year really doing gingerbread houses seriously so we will get more practice next year.
We bought candy and then went to town.
Courtney's house looks like it has lips on the front.
The big candies cover up the big gap in the roof where the two pieces don't quite meet right,
I did part of Bryan's house. I thinned my royal icing down so it was easier to pipe.
They turned out good for the first try. Next year will be better. But it actually was a lot of fun to do because the houses held up, which is a first for us!
We had a light switch in the living room that didn't do anything. Or at least it appeared that it didn't go anywhere. It actually went to a wire that was in the coffer that needed to be connected into a plug in. I have wanted to do it for a while but we haven't taken the time. Finally, I decided that I would do it but Bryan was nervous so I bought the stuff and Bryan did the wiring.
After he got it all wired, we plugged in some rope lights and he secured them so they wouldn't fall down on us. Now the light switch works and turns on the "movie lights." It's fun to watch movies with just those lights on.
We usually decorate gingerbread houses during December. I bought a kit that was supposed to be "amazing" because it was like puzzle pieces. But it didn't work very well. The sides didn't fit together correctly and the frosting wasn't like cement. So it was frustrating. We ended up throwing it away before we could decorate it because we couldn't get the walls put together.
I am doing research on how to make our own gingerbread houses from scratch. Then we will try it again.
This is a pic of our cute kids while they are talking to each other. Ethan gets to call each Tuesday (pday) and Saturday. Courtney likes to take a screen shot when Ethan is on the phone so she can have pictures of him. It's cute.
You can tell which day he is talking to us on because on Tuesday he calls at 7 am and is still in his pajamas. So if he is in a shirt and tie, it's usually Saturday.
Courtney had club soccer practice. They had a team of younger girls practicing with them. Some time during the game, one of the younger girls cleated Courtney. When Courtney got into the car she complained that her leg was burning because a girl had cleated her but it was dark so I couldn't see the damage. We got home and she showed me and I was amazed! It was pretty painful!
This is what it looked like a couple of days later.
She ended up with a scar from one of the marks but the rest healed really well.
