Gingerbread House Disaster

The evening begun with simple joys. Pouring out all the candies in divided plates, adding more candies than what comes in the silly kit. There was fondant which we kept pronouncing FUNdant and laughing all the way. We let the girls use the rolling pin which they thought was awesome! Though the FUNdant never really expanded in the rolling process, perhaps foreshadowing the construction of our gingerbread house woes.

The laugher, the candies and rolling all stopped. It stopped because that damn gingerbread is heavy and that squirt bag of frosting was not enough. We tried in several different orders. We even read the directions, but nothing was working. The house had beat us. We had to get back up frosting which luckily we had a in the fridge. At one point a frosting battled occurred, many were hit only a few injured.

 

Way past a traditionally recommended bedtime, bellies filled with more candy than Halloween night and various vanilla frostings we constructed a building block version of a shack. We happily stuck the candy décor all over the outside as best as possible with extra frosting and gooey fingers. Then we had to dunk everyone in the bathtub to take the sticky, ickies off and then try to convince them to fall asleep. 

Not all family projects go successfully. We learned that we should have started this one a little bit earlier and we need to remember to let the pieces all harden before planning on pouring 3 tons of candies on it if we hope that the walls simply don't slide apart every time the fan blows. Clearly, I am still working through  a little of my frustration. But more important than a well made gingerbread house was the amount of laugher and silly that we had. Not every family moment will be a Hallmark commercial in the making but if we are honest those are usually the best ones.

And if I add a little bit more to my own parenting reflections, sometimes it's good to show kids that not everything has to be perfect. Sometimes things just need to be fun. Sometimes things need to be flexible. Perfection isn't the ideal. The ideal is joy. The ideal is love. The ideal is laughter. We accomplished that  ideal for sure.