My Favorite Holiday Tradition: Making a Gingerbread House

Ever since I made a gingerbread house with the daughter of a boss  many, many years ago, I've made a gingerbread house every year.  Some years, I've made them on my own.  Most years, I've made them with my niece and nephew.

Last year, CJ and I made a gingerbread house and boy did we have a great time.  This year, we found a gingerbread train kit.  Given that CJ is obsessed with trains and I love gingerbread kits, this was a perfect activity for us on a cold Sunday.

I was in charge of putting the train together with the icing and putting the icing on the gingerbread pieces, while CJ was in charge of decorating the train.  My mother-in-law is visiting so she helped with the decorating as well.  We even customized our masterpiece with a Sir Topham Hatt, tree and stop sign from CJ's wooden train set.

At first, I tried to provide direction about what candy pieces should go where, but CJ had a mind of his own and he knew just where to put the candy pieces.  And you know what?  He did a great job without my help.  It didn't take me long to realize that this project was all about him, it doesn't have to be perfect (by a long shot) and making him do the work makes CJ independent and proud.

This gingerbread kit reminded me of a birthday party we attended a couple of weeks ago at a paint your own pottery place.  When we got there, I put an apron on CJ and he immediately went to work.  He picked a couple of pieces, started mixing colors and must have painted his pieces a jillion times.  The end result was ceramic Christmas ornaments that are mostly brown from all the mixing of colors.  What cracked me up was the couple of moms who, after their kids "finished" painting, basically redid the work. One mom painstakingly painted a reindeer ornament, while another mom created a beautiful tree.  These ornaments are going to be pretty, but they won't exactly be creations of their kids.  

When CJ's ornaments come back after being fired, he will be able to say they are his, and he painted them without mommy's help.  And I know he will hang them on our tree with pride. As Maki puts it, if I just put aside my over-achieving self and let CJ do the work, everyone is better for it. :-)