Every year around December, I stroll down the bakery aisle of the grocery store. I notice all the gingerbread kits, and think about how much fun it would be to make it with the kids. Every year for two years now, the kids ask if we can buy one. I usually say “maybe”, because the truth is I feel guilty saying no…but then they forget and don’t ask again. That’s why this year, since we haven’t been doing much fun stuff I decided this would be the year I’d cave. The kids hadn’t asked me yet, so I planned specifically to make a trip to the store to buy one.
The intention was to buy it while the kids were at school, and then surprise them with it when they got home. Unfortunately not everything always goes as planned, so we brought them all to the store with us. My plan was to just buy the regular Gingerbread house, and decorate it. But then I seen a Minion one, despite the Minion one being five dollars more I decided to splurge and buy it. This time I’d be the cool mom, I’d get the cool character one.. even if it only made me cool for a few minutes.
I read the outside packaging it was peanut-free (which is important), it said it came with vanilla frosting, and a small packet of banana and ball candies. From the sounds of it, there wouldn’t be enough candy or icing to go around. The intention of buying this house was to give the kids something fun to do, something that would make a good memory I didn’t want it to involve fighting.
So I figured we might as well go big, with Keera, Zaden, and Emilee pulling us in all directions we searched for candies. I was nervous about buying stuff in the bulk candy section, especially since they placed the Smarties right beside the peanuts. After some debating, we decided on some Gummy Bears, some Skittles and some Smarties. I bought packets of Smarties, instead of the bulk ones… just to be safe. It was time to get out of the candy aisle, we had already got too much candy.
That’s when I remembered I wanted to grab a container of icing, so I went down the baking aisle to grab some chocolate icing. I went down that aisle knowing what I wanted, but as soon as I got there I seen the sprinkles. That’s when the fun mom part of me got to thinking, it would be cute to have some sprinkles too. Thankfully the kids went with their MéMé to another part of the grocery store, and I was able to remind myself we had more than enough stuff to decorate with.
Later on after supper, I told the kids we’d decorate the gingerbread house. I opened the box, and would you like to know what the extra five dollars was for? It was for the Minion cardboard cutouts… not exactly worth the extra money. The first step was to get everything laid out, and in containers so that we didn’t have to run around looking for stuff.
The idea was for me to get the house set up, and then get the kids to decorate it. It looked and sounded so simple like always. However I couldn’t manage to get the house to stay standing up, it required the plastic bottom and the three kids to aid me.. not to mention I used ALL the vanilla frosting just to hold it up. Finally it stuck, it’s no surprise I’m not a professional baker. I’m curious if it’s just me that has a hard time, or if it’s got something to do with the Gingerbread house kit… 😛
As I mentioned I had used up all the vanilla frosting, just on keeping the foundation up. So it’s a good thing I had bought a container of chocolate icing. The kids and I put the chocolate frosting all over the gingerbread house, we used half of the container of icing. It actually surprised me that it didn’t fall down, from the weight of the icing. While the kids were discussing who would use which candies, and who would do what design on the house. I decided to do a Facebook Live session, of the kids decorating their gingerbread house.
Emilee helped put on a couple of candies, but mostly spent most of the time eating the candies instead. Remember how I said we had gone overboard with buying the candy? Well I didn’t even put out all the candies that we had bought out, I only took a little bit then put the rest in the cupboard. It’s a good thing too, because once they got started the house got completely covered.
The kids were super happy with the end result of their decorating. Even though you might get diabetes just from looking at it, I think that it’s really cute. The stupid five dollar Minion cutouts, actually make it really come together. This created a memory for the kids, even if it’s something as simple as decorating a gingerbread house. We spent time together as a family, and that means more than anything.
Something people didn’t see on Facebook Live, and will not see in pictures… Was after I had finished taking all of these pictures, one of the sides of the house fell down. Considering how much icing and candy is on top of it, I’m not even the slightest bit surprised. I let the kids each have a small piece of the house, before it was time to get ready for bed.
Now I’ve got half of a chocolate gingerbread house, that’s sitting on top of my counter covered in saran-wrap. I’m curious how long it’s going to sit there…
What’s something you do with your kid(s), to get in the Holiday Spirit or prepare for Christmas?