A Holiday Tradition

The kids and I were trying to remember how many years we have been making gingerbread houses together. One year I took Maya to the Claremont Hotel to see the giant gingerbread model of the Claremont Hotel before going back to our house to decorate our own mini model. We think she was four or five and that it was probably her first year. One year, probably when we decided Owen was old enough to join us, I made a mini house for him to decorate.

I also made gingerbread houses with the boys, but Will, who came in from playing golf with OilMan during the discussion, had no memory at all of doing it. Somewhere in the archives I must have a picture of him doing to jog his memory. It would be nice if I could actually find it....

Today Maya brought her friend Jolie who was supposed to come last year but had to cancel at the last minute because, ironically, she had to go to the dentist. I liked Jolie's elf sweater. I made some gingerbread snowman and Christmas trees for her to decorate, which she did with great care and precision. 

It's always fun to watch the evolution in approach to the design and engineering applied by the kids to this project. Despite posting himself underneath the counter, Ozzie got fewer dropped tidbits this year, and the kids had far less frosting on their persons. I spent far less time wiping up frosting but maybe that's because Joni did most of it. I spent no time wiping up red frosting because I learned the first year I bought some that it was a big mistake....There are a couple of pictures in the extras