One Sugar High and One Big Mess

The buddies and I have been busy creating our holiday traditions. Yesterday, we decorated a gingerbread house and I was sure it would be an awesome experience that we'd want to repeat again and again. I'm not so sure now, but I definitely learned a few things from our first attempt.

1) Decorate after a meal. Duh! I don't know why I let the kids go at it right after they awoke from their nap. I handed Ben his bowl of candy and his eyes widened - he's never been given that much candy in his entire life. He ate and ate and ate, occasionally putting a piece on the house. When I finally clued in and took the bowl away, he ran around the kitchen in a big circle yelling, "I go! I go! I go!" He was wound up! And an hour later he only ate three bites of dinner.

2) Ration out the candy before hand and then put the rest out of sight. Again, duh! Ace, who does not have a sweet tooth, is a dumper. And he is very into doing everything by himself. So, while Ben was putting away more candy than he normally eats in a year, Ace was grabbing the bags of M&M's and gumdrops and candy canes and dumping them into his bowl and then Ben's, saying, "I do myself". There was candy everywhere (except on the house).

The good news is our house looks pretty good. Gingerbread houses are apparently very forgiving of small artists. Our house may not be a masterpiece, but it is certainly festive. The buddies couldn't wait to show Daddy when he got home.