Christmas Traditions

I love Christmas! It is my favorite time of year. There are so many fun things that happen only at Christmas. My family has many Christmas traditions, but I think my favorite is making Gingerbread Houses. We went to my parents house yesterday for a fun family night filled with laughter, love, and LOTS of sugar! It was a little challenging for everyone to arrive in the midst of the storm, (David, Jennifer and Mariasha's cars all got stuck and they had to be shuttled to my parents house) but it was well worth it.




My mom, who is such an amazing woman, baked 15 gingerbread houses, made frosting, and bought copious amounts of candy. (Thanks Mom! You're the best!) Then the fun began. We glued the houses together with royal icing, and then decorated them with candy. The frosting was a little runny because of the storm (humidity), which made things a bit chalenging, but we had fun making our masterpieces!




People always come up with some fun and crazy ideas once the creative juices start flowing. One year my brother Kevin had Santa's sleigh crashed on the ground beside the house (there were skid marks on the roof where he couldn't stop). Another year, my brother Kyle filled up the inside of his house with candy so he would have more to eat later. We ran out of candy that year. I seem to remember that one year my dad cut out windows and doors and built furniture inside from leftover gingerbread scraps, but that might have been someone else.





This year I think Julane should have won the "Most Creative" award. Kamden wanted to make a baby Jesus, so Julane made a nativity scene. Instead of a house, she made a stable, then she made people out of marshmallows. I really like the angel.




I made an old fashioned church. I thought about putting headstones in the churchyard, but David said it was Christmas, not Halloween. The hardest part was the shingles. I made them out of Cheese Its, and it was really hard to cut them in half for the end pieces. I broke LOTS of crackers!

Jordan's goal was to fit as much candy on his house as was humanly possible. I don't know... I think I see a bare spot on the right corner. Try harder next year, Jordan!!!

Austin came with us this year, and had a lot of fun. When I asked him, he said, "I thought it would be fun, but I didn't realize how fun! I had a total blast!"

So did I! It was so fun to hang out and joke around with my family, people who are also my good friends. (Keith, Angie, Teri and Mark we missed you!) Some of the houses didn't survive the night, and some will still be standing, hard and stale, weeks from now. It's the memories, though, that will last a lifetime!