This has been a busy week of Christmas projects, since my son decorated the gingerbread cookies with a lacy design and then decorated some gingerbread men in historical attire.
Now my kids are working on the Colonial Williamsburg gingerbread village while I make the tamales for our Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve dinners.
CHRISTMAS IN CONNECTICUT
As we worked, we watched one of my favorite Christmas movies, Christmas in Connecticut starring Barbara Stanwyck, set in 1945 which follows our theme of cooking.
In this movie is about a lady who writes gourmet cooking and homekeeping articles for a major publication, all based on her family farm in Connecticut…except she writes under a pen name because in real life she is a single lady living in New York City who can’t cook.
MAKING TAMALES
Prepared masa is in the bowl on the left, the spicy chicken filling is in the second bowl, corn husks are soaking in water in the tub to soften, then the red plate will hold the wrapped tamales.
GINGERBREAD VILLAGE
Meanwhile my kids had only afternoons to work on their projects, since they had school work to conquer in the mornings.
Although my son had ambitious plans for fancy techniques, time demanded more simplicity than he wanted.
But I think it looks great.
In the photo below, see the creek on the back left, representing the creek in Colonial Williamsburg.
The village comes complete with oyster shell paths and piles of firewood and wreaths on the door.
The building on the far-right bottom is a disassembled wind mill, just like at Colonial Williamsburg.
The church even has stained glass windows…a representation he wanted to try even though we don’t think the actual building has stained glass.
