Gingerbread's for Suckers

My mom and dad came to visit a few weeks ago (as did Matt's parents and sister...but we're getting there one post at a time). One of the highlights of their trip was making Christmas trains. We discussed making homemade gingerbread for about a minute and then struck upon graham crackers! Voila! Seriously, until your kids are old enough to care about having an authentic gingerbread experience, go graham! And even then are there lots of kids who do care about an authentic gingerbread experience? Hmmm.

Another debate we had that lasted about 1 second was whether the boys should build and decorate the train or just decorate it. Answer? Just decorate it. Always just decorate it at these ages. Sure creativity and building skills are nice things to develop, but again, not that day in our household. Dad was commissioned with the train building while the rest of us adults pondered if the kids were even going to want to decorate them. I mean, the eternal question of decorating a train with candy is: put the candy on the train or in your mouth? We assumed that the answer was in your mouth. Always in your mouth.

Much to our delight (and surprise) they dove right in! We pointed out some strategically piped frosting as good sticky points for their candy and they got busy.




























The boys had a great time choosing what to put where and, well, eating candy. Apparently the two are not mutually exclusive!




























Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for this fun and tasty activity. Veeery tasty.