Gingerbread House

Today we decorated a gingerbread house. I bought one of those kits at Walmart and it included everything, including a stand! Now, normally, I try and go "Martha" with things, like I would try and make my own gingerbread, icing, and then buy decorations. So, to just make this from the kit was something new. Actually, this was the first year that we have done this. And surprisingly, it won't be the last. It was a lot of fun.

From the moment I got the box down (because I had to hide it, of course.) Reagan was jumping up and down. So, I opened it and sorted out the pieces. Then I put the icing on the gingerbread and started forming the house. Of course, this was not good enough for Mati and Reagan. They wanted to eat the house just like that. Fortunately, the kit included a few stand-alone pieces that I slathered a bit of icing on and gave to them so that I could work in peace. Well, they loved that and it kept them busy for a time, that is until I opened the candy. Now I know what the expression 'kid in a candy shop' means. It's like they knew that gum drops and brightly colored little things would taste delicious! They went crazy! Mati slammed about 3 gum balls into her mouth before I even realized they were gum balls. I don't think she's ever had gum before today. (I had a brief moment of panic when I realized that gum is a choking hazard.) Well, she ended up swallowing the gum to make room for more candy and cookies.




In the meantime, Reagan was decorating the house with me. I put some icing on and she put some candy there. But then she realized that the icing tasted good, so she started eating the icing off of the house. This wasn't so bad because it added to the icicle effect that I was going for.

Another thing I realized as I was decorating the house the girls were eating the candy off of the other side. So, every time I turned the house around more candy would be missing.

Finally, the girls and I had had enough. They had had enough candy, and I had had enough of asking them to stop eating the candy. So, we washed up and I broke out the camera. I asked Reagan to come and sit by the house for the picture, and of course some more candy was gone.