We're in full holiday mode at our house now after making gingerbread houses and driving around looking for Christmas lights this week.

We took part in a family workshop at the Baxter Library in Gorham to make gingerbread houses. And although it looked as though our house had been through a snow storm thanks to our less than careful work with the frosting adhesive, we did include a hot rod parked next to the house. The girls were pleased to have built a hot rod "just like Grandpa's" and even included a Hershey Kiss date for him. Typical Almeida family humor...

See our Seen Team photos at the gingerbread house workshop

Then last night I took the girls and a couple of their friends out to look at Christmas lights. It's a family tradition to make hot cocoa and pack a bucket of popcorn and candy for a car ride around town looking for light displays.

G. took photos from a few favorite displays. This one was in Standish.

Another favorite display in Windham

A couple of years back I made a math game out of our Christmas lights car adventure to help G. with her math skills. It was so much fun that we now make a tally sheet every year for our trip.

In the 20 miles we drove through various neighborhoods last night, here's what we found.

108 - candy canes
95 - Reindeer
88 - Christmas trees (shrubs didn't count)
50 - Santas
43 - Frostys
36 - Stars
7 - Polar bears
6 - Mangers

There was much discussion about their statistical data on the most popular light display items and which were not.

When I told G. that math really wasn't so bad she replied, "Yeah but this is fun math. Not like the other stuff I have to do."

G. had the camera's video going on the trip as well and took some video clips of a couple of the bigger light displays we saw along the way that she liked.

See her Christmas lights video