Sunday, December 14, 2008

A New Tradition

Last year Maddy and I attempted to make a gingerbread house at home. Yes, I say attempted because we were not very successful. Who reads those instructions before you start anyway??? I thought it would be a great afternoon activity, but it ended up taking all day as first we had to put the sides together and wait a while; then the roof and wait again. There was more waiting than decorating -- it took forever!! So, this year I decided we would try a different way to make a gingerbread house. Today our Children's Museum had Gingerbread House Day -- it was a great way to decorate a GB house without having any of the delay and mess at home! Perfect!!

Maddy and I arrived at our scheduled appointment and were given a darling cardboard house and four containers of frosting! And add to that every imaginable candy, cereal, lollipop, colored popcorn, pretzels, candy canes, etc., available for decorating the house. We were a teensy bit disappointed that we couldn't eat any of the candy, but our house turned out lovely . . . in our eyes anyway. Some of the participants were extremely organized and had a plan of action in their design and decorating -- like the sides matched or there was some "theme" to their house. Ours was . . . more spontaneous. No matter, we loved it! A new tradition is born!





Bonus -- we got to play at the Children's Museum both before and after the house decorating. And guess who went shopping at their little gift shop looking for a gift for me??? You guessed it -- Maddy! She was determined to buy me a Christmas gift. Hey, who knew that I had a Webkinz whale on my list!!! :)

19 comments:

Kerry said...

What a great idea! And they had all of the fun decorations there for you- perfect. It came out nice too. I bet Maddy had a blast decorating.

Grace has been asking me when we are doing ours all week. Hopefully in the next day or so. Always so fun- I hope she lets me help this year! :)

Missy said...

Now that is the idea...loads of fun, lots of mess...not at home : )

Your Gingerbread house turned out darling!!! Maddy looked so proud. She really is a beautiful little girl.

I bet you will treasure your whale webkinz for years to come : )

Jennifer said...

How fabulous!!! I love this! She did a really great job with her house! I need to check and see if our museum does this.

Half Gaelic, Half Garlic! said...

This is a brilliant idea....no waiting for things to dry and better yet, no mess in your house!!

Maddy's house is beautiful.....she is quite the little artist!! Looks like she enjoyed the museum too!!

We did our houses last night at home....I am still walking in the kitchen and stepping on candy that missed the rooftop!!

Love your Christmas gift....that is too cute!!

Have a good week!

Lisa

fleur de lis cottage said...

That's a great idea. What a nice tradition to start and it turned out great.

Rachel said...

Your gingerbread house looks wonderful! I would love to go to a workshop rather than mixing the frosting and doing it at home! Then, everything would be the right consistency, etc. and someone else would clean up the mess!

We always have fun knocking down teh house once the holiday is over. Its as much or more fun than making it.

Rachel

Lucy said...

What a fun mommy/daughter thing to do! Sometimes the best designs are the spontaneous ones, yours turned out fabulous! What wonderful memories you are creating for Maddy, I know she won't forget that day! Happy Holidays!

Kate said...

This just looks like a dreamy kind of afternoon to me!!! Sadly, Lia and I have our own gingerbread failure story as well. I may benefit from some guidance too!!!

I love your finished product...and Maddy just looks so intent and cute!!!

Kim said...

Oh, this sounds like the perfect afternoon! What a great idea and fun tradition! Maddy's house looks just adorable!

Enjoy your Christmas present! Hope Maddy lets you play with it.

paige said...

what a grand gingerbread house!!

Buzzings of a Queen Bee! said...

That is such a great idea Janet! How fun to go somewhere else to make all the mess. We did a simple gingerbread house this weekend but thankfully my husband is much more of an engineer-type, so he put together the house and NIna and I focused on the decorating. Plus then we could snack on the decorations! :)
Carrie

Lisa said...

Wow! That's awesome! The gingerbread house turned out great! Good job!

Christy said...

OK,that is totally cool!! I would love to do that with my kids-- they would love it and how cool that the mess is not at your house :)

We do the gingerbread house every year as well and we make the "attempt" as well and ours is usually pretty messy looking-- Maddys was awesome!! Glad you guys had such a great time!!

Christy :)

Jodee said...

It looks like you had a great time at the gingerbread house workshop yesterday. We did too! Your house turned out soooo cute! Wait until you see ours -- it's not quite as cute!

Shell in your Pocket said...

Oh my goodness..what a wonderful gingerbread house! She looks so happy! How fun is that??!!
-sandy toes

Jennifer said...

Love this idea. We tried to make a gingerbread house last weekend and it was a flop. I had no idea that I had to let the house dry for hours before decorating it.


Your house turned out beautiful!

Jen

Super Mommy said...

Just found your blog! AWESOME GB House. We are going to attempt to make one at home this weekend. . . wish us luck!

Donna said...

That is one amazing gingerbread house...I'm envious your museum has such a great activity. We've had a couple of sad attempts at gingerbread houses in our place too!

Ivy Shaffer said...

Ah what a smile, what fun! Love the Gingerbread House too. good JOB Maddy.

What a darling child.

Blessings for Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

The Marks Family