December, Part 1: Gingerbread Houses

One yearly Christmas tradition that we have is to decorate gingerbread houses...and for my boys to pretty much eat them almost instantly after they have been completed. These gingerbread houses were luckier than most...they made it almost 24 hours before being dismantled and devoured!

Above: Seriously, how did Dad finagle these boys into giving him a neck and scalp massage before decorating gingerbread houses?

Above: My silly guys.

Above: Perhaps one of the reasons the gingerbread houses survived 24 hours is because the boys each had their own decorator bag full of icing. With a little "taste" of icing here and there, they probably got their sweet fix taken care of.

Above: I love how he is wiping off his sticky frosting covered fingers onto his shirt as I am taking this picture.

Above: Dan needed a bottle while the boys were decorating their gingerbread houses. After he had a full tummy, he was as smiley as can be.

Above: Proud of his handiwork.

Above: Johnny's turn to snack on some icing.

Above: Johnny's gingerbread house.

Above: Peter's gingerbread house.

Above: Daddy's gingerbread house.

Above: Didn't they do such a good job?

Above: I loved how their houses turned out.

Above: Even if the houses never last very long, I love this tradition (except for my boys begging me constantly if they can do it until we actually do...I need to find a better place to hide the gingerbread house supplies until we're ready to decorate them). The boys always have so much fun though and I would rather that they are so excited for one of our traditions that they can't wait to do it than to have them not want to spend time together and do something fun like this. I will for sure be getting them separate houses with separate bags of frosting from now on though. That factor, alone, added a lot to the success of the night!