Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Christmas Traditions Part 6

This year I decided to start a new tradition: building gingerbread houses with the cousins. To be honest, I took the shortcut way, and it was actually graham cracker houses, glued to a box of some sort with frosting.  However, I do aspire to the making of real ginger bread with which to make real gingerbread houses, but in the meantime, this was really fun too.  

We had a pretty good spread of candy thanks to Nana and Papa.  They were nicer than I was and dropped off yummy candy for the kids to use.  I went to Dollar Tree and bought candy no one would want to eat, with the hope of keeping the kids from eating too much junk.  Peppermints anyone?  (Does anyone actually like those little peppermint hard candies?)

The kids got right to work creating their masterpieces.  We soon realized that these gingerbread houses were not even graham cracker houses, but simply frosting houses. The kids were slathering on gobs of the white goo until I was unsure if they would ever dry. 



Each house was very different and each cousin came up with their own stylistic elements.  I really liked James marshmallow chimney.

William's favorite part was definitely the eating of the candy.  I don't think he'd ever been that close to so much candy. He took full advantage of the situation.  

I took a photo of each cousin with their finished masterpiece.  I have fond hopes of a slew of these pictures in the years to come.  

William finished first.  His was a gingerbread garage.

Scotty made a manger scene, complete with snowmen Peeps shepherds.  Pretty ingenious.

Cora also did a gingerbread manger scene.  Check out the graham cracker manger she and her mommy made.  Look closely and you will even see a baby Jesus.


James took the longest on his house.  He kept adding and adding to it.  He made the marshmallow walls for protection. If someone crashed into them, they would just bounce right off.  

And here is the real masterpiece of the night.  A picture of all 6 cousins together, even the babies.  Merry Christmas from the cousins! 
 

1 comment:

Erin McDonald said...

I love the NEW tradition!!! I can't wait to have kids and start this one! Maybe in a few more years. We have layed our lives at the feet of Jesus and told him to take control and so far he is doing every thing wonderfuly with out our help and with that no babies yet. His will is good and his timing perfect so we still wait upon him. So to answer the ? I do like peppermint candies! but only after a cup of coffee after a dinner out like at El Jardines or Mimi's cafe. trust me they taste better than the stuff you get here, They call them candy but what they are is nasty throught lasenges Sorry I can't spell! They come in cherry, menthol, and honey lemon and they are all nasty!!!! you can buy them any where on the street from a homeless vender, or in a big bag from the grocery. And at least your hard candies look prety the "candies" here are not even cute and chery like those adorable pepermints! So Praise God for prety and festive candy even if they don't taste great!! Love you! Have a great day and see you in about 40 days!