I have to admit that this year during preparation there were grumbles and rumbles between Brian and me of it being the last year. Maybe we should go out with a bang-- ten years of this is an accomplishment! But as always, when it is over and we sit in our house with dried icing and crumbs of gingerbread on our clothes and many of our possessions, we throw back leftover egg nog and talk about how awesome our friends are and that we're happy to be able to do this for them.
This year we had the most help with preparations and clean-up that we've ever had. Brian was able to help some with the baking this year and his mom did almost all the icing, which was amazing. Nearly everyone contributed lunch food, and-- as always-- the candy. This was all super helpful and took away a lot of stress from me.
But as usual it took me the entire weekend before to bake all the gingerbread. The boys are old enough now to want to help, but not old enough to actually be helpful. It makes for a long weekend for us: baking for me, and a ton of shopping and hauling for Brian. The boys run around being nearly neglected the weekend of baking and during the party.
All things considered, though, I think it's safe to say the party will probably happen again next year.
Without further ado, here are some pictures from the preparation and from the party: (If you scroll down to the bottom there are links to all past years.)
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| Paper towel Santa beard |
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| This is Christmas spirit, folks. |
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| The boys take a break from being neglected/ interrupt me |
And then, a few weeks later I custom-made some gingerbread creations for my nephews who were visiting from Atlanta: the White House, a regular house, and a race car.
I even spent some time to make one myself and to help Cal and Clark make one:
And made gingerbread people for the boys' teachers' cookie bar at school:
In case you haven't had enough gingerbread pictures here are links to past parties:
