Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Holiday High...


I must be high on life or "Christmas Crack". Can't decide which. Because when my swista called to invite me to go decorating Gingerbread Houses with my little set of twiblings, I said yes. As if an eighteen-month-old and a two-year-old set of BOYS would be into that, right?


Well, call it a Christmas miracle, but they sat their little hind ends in their chairs and glued on... let's be generous and say five pieces of candy each... before they sat quietly eating sugary goodness for the next fifteen minutes. I call that gingerbread house makin' success, ya'll. And sure, they didn't get it. And they sure didn't appreciate my version of the Gingerbread song... but I think it stuck. Far back in their little memory banks.... they will have a glimpse of a Christmas tradition that started plenty early and when they make the inevitable little house of graham crackers in Kindergarten... it'll all come back and their tiny abodes will stand a little straighter than the other kids' - of this, I'm certain.

For those of you who live in our freezing state, just know that I did all this in the comfort of Ikea. Yes, that's right... they provided the walls of our humble abode, along with the frosting and the candy AND.... drum roll, they cleaned up the mess. All of this for the bargain basement price of $5 a house. Yeah, you're welcome! :) Just call in advance to get on the schedule.


Anyway, back to my sappy Christmas tale... I told RyGar that later this week we will be making "Reindeer Food" in preparation for Santa's arrival at our house. And in true RyGar fashion he just sort of laughed and said something like, "Wow... Sounds Awesome." But here's the thing... he's totally stoked about the Reindeer food evening. Because all machismo aside, he likes weaving these little Christmas traditions into our family fabric almost as much as I do. Plus, let's be honest, creating little bags of Reindeer food for the boys to spread on the lawn on Christmas Eve is the manliest of all crafts.

So... Christmas 2011.... here I am.
I'll be flying the Fa La La La La Freak Flag all month because I can.
I waited a LOT of years to be able to get my kid on with my own little posse. So I'll be reveling in every childish Christmas activity we can muster.

By far my favorite feature of our Gingerbread House... The Missing Mallows. :)

Gingerbread House.... Check
Charlie Brown Christmas.... Check
Reindeer Food.... a.k.a. crumbled "Tatoe Chips"...Comin' at ya.

Oh yeah... 'tis the season.
:)

5 comments:

Chrystie said...

Wow! That looks fantastic. I soooo wish that Ikea wasn't so far away from my house. (Although, Preston is pretty glad that Ikea is so far from my house.) Might have to make the trip, those gingerbread houses look incredible!

Jen McGill said...

That's awesome, Amber! You always find the screamin' deals! I saw one Gingerbread event advertised for $35.00 a house and thought "no way!" Gotta love Ikea..

The Venutis said...

Love traditions! And $5.00? No Mess? Perfect. And shamefully I will admit I have never been in an IKEA : (

Andrea said...

You are such a cute mom! One of my favorite things we did a few years ago was shake "reindeer dust" (glitter) on the snow so Santa could see our house from the sky. It was a hit!

Mel said...

Now that is my kind of party where someone else sets up AND cleans up!
Congrats on the blessing of your sweet little Ace! He's looking more and more like his daddy-o!