One Christmas Tradition

Many years ago someone in me family - maybe mom, maybe Kathy - saw a magazine featuring a sugar cube castle (probably Martha Stewart Living). Since then - we make sugar cube castles just after Thanksgiving and enjoy it (or them) until New Years.

This year I had a very small party with Kathy, Rachel and a couple of friends. Here are our efforts:

I went for a simple tower and forest:
Rachel was very pleased:
This is our friend Andree's castle. I think it is so cute!
Here's Kathy's:

And Esther's:

It was a fun night. Everyone arrived at 6:30. We made pizza with dough from a local yummy pizzeria (Schmizza). The trick to making it taste right is dusting the pan and crust with cornmeal. We listened to Christmas music (until we had to switch to Sarah McLachlan's Afterglow), ate pizza and built with sugar cubes. The decorating is fun fun fun. And the castles light up beautifully with a tea light. I love them. Everyone was gone, the house cleaned up and the dishwasher running by 10pm. Perfect!

Have I mentioned recently how my I LOVE my dishwasher? I do! Just about as much as I love my dryer. I find myself throwing everything into the dryer - I suddenly don't care that some shirts should be line dried. I don't want my dryer to think that I don't love it. I am sure eventually that will wear off and I'll love my shirts more and start hanging them to dry.