Advent Tree - Day 11: Gingerbread House

We got a late start on this one, because it's been a nice, lazy Saturday.

Nevertheless, the girls pulled their ornaments off the tree and found it to be time to make a gingerbread house. I was a little apprehensive with how much Lydia was going to help and how much she was going to eat. In the end, she stayed rather focused. On eating.


Grace was adamant the house would look like the one on the box. And Lydia dips both hands in the sprinkles to get more to savor.


Grace was also a great mentor telling Christy exactly how to frost and how to assemble the gingerbread house. Which is why I prefer to work with Lydia. (Lydia is still finding some frosting to enjoy.)

Then, Christy got fed up with the assembly and frosting cure time. Somehow, my work experience in acoustics made me an expert at gingerbread structural analysis. Notice that Lydia, lacking any gingerbread icing to sample, found a Dum Dum. Always focused.


I'm not quite sure how that wall has started to cave but I know it's not the structural engineers fault. And someone please tell me what poor elf or German nursery story character is going to have to walk over that sharp, sticky crushed peppermint gravel before trying to get in.


Since it was a cold, rainy day, we also decided to get rolling on Christmas cookies. Grace was helpful. But that's not what this picture represents. It represents troubles in our marriage. Specifically, miss-communication. I started the peanut butter balls but didn't have the 2 1/2 cups of crushed graham crackers. When Christy returned from the grocery store with our needed supplies, I put Grace and Lydia to work crushing a couple of packages of crackers. Before they finished, I took Lydia shopping and returned to find Christy and Grace finished by mixing in the crackers. They weren't pre-measured. But Christy thought so. Who knows how much is actually in there.

Here's a shot of Lydia not eating cookie dough. I had to be quick with the camera to get it.


Ella got in on the action. She's a sweet girl, too. She had the option of either rolling the dough or sending Grace to the ER with three broken fingers. Ella chose the former.


Tomorrow, I hope Dad is excluded from the Advent activity.