A New Christmas Tradition

I have never in my life built a gingerbread house, so I'm not entirely sure what possessed me to purchase a couple of kits at Walmart today.  Perhaps it was because I had the older boys with me and they were nagging me about EVERYTHING so I thought that would shut them up for a bit.  Or maybe I knew I needed their help cleaning the house and I thought this would be a good bribe:  "We can't do the gingerbread houses until you pick up all this junk."  Whatever it was, I'm so glad I did it.

 

I bought two kits and had the boys pair up into teams.  Owen grabbed Luke for his because "I never get Luke" and Sammy was happy to get William.  (William has been playing a lot with the older boys these days and is LOVING being included in their activities.  He feels like SUCH a big boy!)

 

I love this picture because you can see the concentration in Luke's eyebrows eyes.

 

 

These kits are so great.  They were super easy, even for the little kids.  I did most of putting the frosting on just because it was a little stiff and, of course, they never do understand how to squeeze from the bottom of the tube.  But the decorating was 100% their doing.

You can probably tell from Luke's expression that not ALL

the candies were going to end up on the house.

The kits came with a little packet of yellow fondant to roll out and cut shapes, which was my job.

I had a lot of fun cutting it - so easy to work with!  I made their initials to put on the houses so we could easily remember which one was which.

 

And in addition to a being a really fun activity, they also look really cute displayed on my shelf!

 

The boys all loved making these and thanked me several times.  They sat focused for a full hour on this but the minute they declared them finished, all four of them RACED downstairs to play on their Rip Riders.  Homeschooling four boys has really taught me a lot about the differences between boys and girls.  My boys can focus but only for a certain amount of time before the energy inside them builds up and they HAVE to let it out.  This is why boys typically don't do very well in conventional schools when they're younger.  I understand now that they NEED to jump and run and yell and be totally obnoxious - it's just who boys ARE!  I'm so thankful I get to spend so much time

with them so I can begin to truly understand and know them as people.