Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Gretel Takes Over

One of my favorite Christmas tradtitions has become, these past three years, to drive up to the Land Bountiful to make gingerbread houses with the Mayfield Clan. I love it because the kids love each other, we always eat a yummy dinner, and most of all I love laughing at Misty and myself. We both want to make a perfect Martha Stewart gingerbread house and yet we know, deep down, that really it's better to actually involve the children in our holiday activities. It is so hard to reign in my impulses to control the whole process. Luckily for me, my kids were so much more interested in eating frosting and candy than actually applying anything to the house:



It ended up looking okay - gingerbread houses always look pretty cute. Well, I made the mistake of keeping the house on a lower piece of furniture this year than last, and the house has seriously suffered the consequences. It only took a day or two before the roof had been picked clean of all candy. Luckily the "frosting" we use is pretty tough stuff, because the kids haven't been able to get much else off, but it's not from a lack of trying, believe me. This evening, after our very disappointing venture (see previous post) I was doing the dishes when I heard Troy laughing heartily. I turned around, and he quietly pointed for me to look through the kitchen doorway into the entryway. I guess Bitty got fed up with our super-strength frosting and took matters into her own hands:






I hope our holiday guest and visitors enjoy looking at the half-masticated, slightly gooey remains of our gingerbread house.

7 comments:

Keersten said...

She is hilarious! We love making gingerbread houses too. Actually, we went to large house shaped cookies to give the Marthas and the kids plenty of creative room. It has been great Everyone makes whatever they want! And, just to commiserate, Emily ate half my wreath while I was unloading the car that night. (As we like to say in our house: Knucklehead or Knuckihead in Emspeak)

Kathleen said...

Oh, I love it! She is so darling.
We are making houses next week and I'm sure they will not last more than a few days!

Misty said...

Ours has been picked clean for awhile. Sadly, the roof shattered when the jar of peanut butter fell on it. It looked nice while it lasted, though. :)

Jardinefamily said...

We made a gingerbread train a week ago for family night. Each night after dinner I will let them pick at it for a while. They always go in with the mouth and without the hands...it is so funny...but efficient.

stephgardner said...

I think it's just too tempting to leave alone!! But it looked great to begin with!

The Burts said...

There is something about a gingerbread house covered with all sorts of goodies. How could anyone resist?

Melissa said...

I love it. This looks so much like what would happen at my house. Fortunately, my kids get to make gingerbread houses at school - they have free reign to eat and destroy those and hope fully spare some of my creations - the years I get around to being creative.