Gingerbread Houses

On Friday, December 9, Joshua, Caleb & I headed over to Aunt Jen's house after dinner to make gingerbread houses. Knowing Ryan wouldn't have much of a place to roll around without being in the way, Shawn thought it best to keep him home and volunteered to stay with him, which I thought was really nice.

This year, Jen's friend Mary made the houses and brought them over since Jen has the biggest dining room of us all. She made little edible graham cracker houses for each child, which was a new twist. The boys seemed to enjoy decorating their own house (normally we work on ours as a family). Caleb ate WAY more than he put on his house. I thought for sure he'd have a belly ache, and eventually I told him that he'd had enough.

Joshua was more interested in playing than decorating, but with all the older kiddos there, he didn't get to have a turn with the Wii. He still enjoys playing with the kiddos, though. There were ten altogether and five adults since Shawn didn't come. Below is Joshua's finished house.

As the kids played, I had a house to decorate all by myself. SO fun! I freeze whatever candy we don't use for the next year, and we always add more candy from the store as well. I never eat mine, but the boys have been eating theirs. Here's one side of my house with the boys' houses in the background.

Before we left, we modeled our houses and Jeff snapped a few pictures for us. Joshua is always sad when he knows it's time to leave.

Here's the front of my house before we left that night. I had fun, and it was a great way to end a stinky week (a whole lot of 'messy' grading - I was GLAD this semester was coming to an end!).

Here's the other side of my house, at our house, displayed in the kitchen with the boys' houses as well. I enjoy this Christmas tradition! And, I'm particularly grateful that my sister and Mary make the houses each year because I truly can't imagine putting them together!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...