I’ve had a gingerbread house mold for, oh, about forever. And I’ve never used it, which in my mind means I must get rid of it. But since it was a gift from my mother, I hated to do that, so I made one house so my children could enjoy putting it together decided to host a gingerbread house building party for over 20 kids. Seriously.
The first inkling of trouble to come was when I read, after invitations had been sent out, that the houses should be assembled at least 12 hours before decorating. Oops. But then I figured it out: Bake the houses on Monday, assemble a house for each family on Tuesday, and decorate on Wednesday. But that was not the worst of my troubles. Two days before a party is not the time to discover the quadruple recipe of dough and the five sets of houses you baked are not going to work because they puffed up to over half an inch thick, but on Monday evening I was faced with the terrible truth that I had nothing. I was desperate. I even dreamed of buying little plastic houses that snap together, but there was no way they could ship in time, not to mention they were over $20 a piece.
Enter graham crackers. At least two people had asked why I wasn’t using graham crackers for the base, and that’s what we ended up doing. In God’s good Providence, we just happened to have 25 single serve milk cartons in my mom’s freezer for the kids to use as a base for their decorations. On Tuesday my mom watched all the kids in the afternoon so I could clean out the milk cartons, clean up, and set up. On Wednesday morning I wore my apron to the boys’ dental appointments and finished getting the last of seven pounds of powdered sugar icing scooped into 25 baggies.
Throughout the day, I was amazed at God’s goodness to me in this silly non-plan. It was much more fun for the children to build their own house than working together with siblings, and each family had a paper box lid in which to build a village. Cleverest village award goes to Jenny, who built a little chicken farm on her box lid, complete with barn, chickens, dog, and Chicken Man and his wife. The weather was perfect, so the kids worked out their excess sugar by running around, boxing, and sword fighting outside. All available dads came that night for dinner, and we had a meal of soup and salad and bread and a fun time of singing Christmas carols.
3 comments:
OH my, I would have had a panic attack! SO glad it worked out for you!
Jeni, I think you are GREEEEEEEAAAAAAAAT! Your kids are just SO blessed to have you for their mom. You are brave too! I never would have even entertained the thought of such a venture! You're an inspiration.(I have officially left facebook and now I will have some time to read your delightful blog, which I am so thankful you are updating again.)
did you get new cabinets?
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