Bethany J. Mitchell » Christmas

A Snow Monster Fit to Eat

Bethany — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 01:56:30 +0000

Another fantastic holiday Gingerbread Village display at the Seattle Sheraton this year. The theme was “Holiday Express” and we were all amazed at what these fine chefs and artists could create using candy! We saw a surfin’ Santa, the abominable snow monster, short yellow minions celebrating the holiday, and much more.

Our favorite “houses” included King’s Cross Station from the Harry Potter books/movies and the toy train from The Island of Misfit Toys.

And the youngest member of our group was completely delighted to see that each display featured his favorite things in the world: trains!

Sweet Homes for the Holidays

Bethany — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 21:36:58 +0000

Our annual family Christmas outing to downtown Seattle was a wonderful day this year. It was the baby’s first year with us and our niece joined us again. It was a whirlwind day of Teddy Bear Suite, Seattle Center, Westlake carousel and, of course, our favorite part: the gingerbread houses at the Seattle Sheraton. This year’s theme was “Home for the Holidays” and the creations were spectacular. I am always impressed at the level of detail and the imaginative use of candy.

I take hundreds of photos of the gingerbread houses every year…here are just a few of my favorite details: Left – Fremont Troll, Center – Huskies fans ready for the big game, Right – Santa taking a well-deserved sandwich break.

Our Gingerbread Creations

Bethany — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 22:17:05 +0000

About this time every year, I force the family to join me in an afternoon of messy edible fun decorating something made of gingerbread. Sometimes it’s a gingerbread house…one year it was a gingerbread train…and another year it was a gingerbread Christmas tree. This year we decorated gingerbread boys and girls. I used the word “force” up above because I almost always have to bribe and cajole everyone to start the process and then we all get into the moment and have a great time.

This year the baby joined us and while he was too little to help much (and too little to eat any of the goodies), he seemed to have a great time being in the middle of all the fun. This year’s results were quite adorable. After all these years of practice, we’re all becoming quite adept and creative at working with frosting and candy!

Catch Me if You Can!

Bethany — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 17:33:31 +0000

We are quite fond of gingerbread people here in the Mitchell household. It’s one of our favorite holiday traditions.

We found some wonderful gingerbread people designs over at Zazzle.com that are on the top of our wish lists! We really like the dissected gingerbread man and the gingerbread man with the “no-bite-himself” collar. Too cute!

Gingerbread Fun Couple by Spice

Gingerbread Man Dissected Triptych by moistproduction

Gothic Gingerbread Man by opheliasart

gingerbread man cookies greeting card by camerashyphotos

Funny Bit Himself Gingerbread Man by doonidesigns

I’m Sweet by pinkinkart

Christmas Scarf

Bethany — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 22:22:12 +0000

Knit Christmas Scarf

This is one of my first knitting projects. Created five or so years ago at the request of my teen-aged niece who wanted a Christmasy scarf.

The scarf is made from a variegated three-color yarn with a bit of gold sparkle thrown in (I forget the manufacturer). It is quite long and thinner in the center (around the neck) then almost triples in width at the ends.

Simple garter stitch with lots of decreasing and increasing (excellent practice for me).

This is still one of my niece’s favorite scarves…particularly during the cold and windy days of this past Christmas season in Seattle!