A Gingerbread Family

Today my daughter asked me if we could make gingerbread cookies and I'll admit, I was leary. Most of our holiday activities are set up by me in hopes the kids will appreciate the traditions I create for them. Half the time, it hardly feels worth the effort. First off, they don't follow directions too well. If we are baking, they stick their fingers in the batter, get flour all over and generally make it more work for me. At craft time, they get sticky, fight over everything and I end up having to clean it all up alone. So why do I keep trying?? Well, they love doing activities and have fun with them and I know that deep, deep, really deep down, they will one day appreciate that their mommy made the holidays fun. So I approached the gingerbread men with hopeful trepidation. I contemplated buying the cookie mix, rolling and baking them ourselves then decorating with whatever the kids chose but that's what crazy moms do. I went with the smarter, less messy option: a Wilton Gingerbread Kit. It came with four large pre-baked cookies, icing and red, white and green decorations. This was the answer. For $5.99, I would avoid all the anxiety a Type-A mother like me hopes to. So we got home and got decorating and guess what?? It was a hit! We sat at the table and the kids carefully decorated a cookie in their likeness and happily munched a few of the candies on the way. It killed about thirty minutes, gave us something to do and reminded us that Christmas is just around the corner. I highly recommend making these with your kids. It's sure to be a holiday tradition they will always remember!!

                                                                        The kit...

                                First thing's first...pop the bubble paper that protects the cookies!

                                                  Tada! The Beebe family, in gingerbread!!