Non-traditional Christmas

Hi gang! I hope you all had a good weekend. I was a little under the weather but managed to watch Middle Child's basketball team rally from behind and beat the other team 26-25. Proud of my son and his team.

As a family, we don't have many Christmas traditions. Christmas day is always kind of an unknown until about a week before: grandparents may not travel because of weather, some may travel because of the weather, Daughter is/is not at her dad's (this I do know ahead of time). So our Christmas's are rather low key. I believe I have mentioned I like this best about this holiday. We kind of wing the whole thing.

Normally this would drive me up a wall, but I have learned that some of the best times come out of the ones we did not plan. Just like Youngest being a boy instead of the girl we planned on, sometimes the surprise is better than the event.

Friday night we did something we have never done before: we made graham cracker houses (instead of gingerbread). This is what we started with:

 I forgot to take a picture of the can of vanilla frosting, but that's what we used to hold them together. That was the hardest part of this endeavor, holding the pieces together.

 This is Youngest, very serious about his creation. I think he was more concerned about WHEN he could eat it more than how it looked. He is starting to look more like Middle child more every day.

 That's the whole gang, including the neighbor friend that was over for the evening. There is always an extra on staff in case one of our stars needs a break!

 Middle child with his creation. I think he has a BIG blob of frosting in his mouth...

 Pretty girl with her pretty castle. She managed to eat half a can of frosting in a day and a half. Bleck.

Husband with his teepee. He and I have little patience for creative works. Mine was a teepee as well, with a wall of marshmallows in front.

I don't know that this tradition will "stick" with the kids but everyone had fun and we listened to Christmas music the whole time we worked on them. I don't think you have to have a picture perfect Holiday to make it memorable. It's all about family, laughter and a LOT of sugar :)

Hope you all have a good week and holiday. My schedule and the kids are whacky this week so you may not hear from me much. Trying to be in many different places at once, but thankfully Husband is home to help.

Do something fun with your kids today!!

Cat (the Troll)