Gingerbread House

I didn't even mention the gingerbread house. I was overwhelmed with other problems, including getting over my cold. But the kids started asking about making one since the first day of December. Every day, they kept asking when we were going to do it -- like every 5 minutes. It made me want to scream!

I had wanted to decorate it for FHE, but the house wasn't built by Monday, so I let the kids "help" me make the dough. After they went to bed, I rolled it out and baked the pieces. The next day, Isaac was begging to help me put it together before the others had even left for school. As soon as I was done with breakfast, he was all over me about it, so just to stop the pestering, I consented to build it at 8am.

It was then that I realized I'd made the roof too thick and the walls too thin and hadn't baked it long enough to be rock hard; it was too flimsy and even the heavy-duty frosting/glue I made couldn't keep it together. So I had to insert shoe boxes and cut up paper towel rolls for rods to prop it up inside. In the end, it held fast, but I was worried there for a while.

I was a bit embarrassed that you could see the boxes through the window and door -- until James said how cool it was that a kid was peeking out of the house (shoe box design). That evening, the kids decorated it with the candy.

Oh such a joyful tradition with fighting about who got to put which candy where. I was so glad when the project was complete and the whining was over. I wonder how many family traditions kids look back on fondly that are really more of a headache for the parents. Ah, but isn't that what it's all about?