Christmas tradition

Like most others do at Christmas time, I have made it one of our traditions to make gingerbread houses with T for the last few years.

However, who's idea was it to make these dreadful things in the first place? I mean let's be honest - is it really that fun to do? It seems like more time is spent on the mother/parent end constructing the frame of the darn thing with that cement they call royal icing all the while an hour has passed and the kids start either losing interest or eating/dropping/crushing all of the decorative candy. Let's not forget the possibility that the gingerbread may never actually take the shape of a house/tree/train if the pieces keep sliding apart or cracking. Then you finally resurrect the thing and hope it resembles some version of the picture on the box. I mean please don't misunderstand, of course it's fun...for the kids"...but for me, I find the process a bit daunting and frustrating every year but will do it for the sake of tradition and making those all important holiday memories.

This year we went to the Brady house again to create our Gingerbread train(really great find at BB&B for $9), and T was super excited to be with his best friends that freezing, blustery winter day. Thankfully I only had one creation to build, Kim had a handful- a train, a set of 3 tiny houses, and one big house with Santa's sleigh. Bless her for having the patience of a saint, although she would disagree:), for most of her pieces had trouble staying upright and the icing wasn't helping out. We laughed about it, and she tried to have the kids cover up the problems with more and more icing and candy. Noah was a bit frustrated with his train not staying up, but T was a distraction and they went off to play knights and dragon's and forgot about it promptly enough!
In all my ranting about this silly process, I know that for my children they will have fond thoughts of the time they spent with their friends, the great messes of colored icing they made, and the wonderment of seeing all of the colorful candy strewn about the table. Those things are what make the experience worth while, and why I will suck it up every year and build those blasted stale concoctions!