The Lee Family: Gingerbread Houses!

Sunday, December 3, 2017

Gingerbread Houses!

This afternoon we went to Olivia's fellow 1st grader, Logan's house for his annual gingerbread decorating party. Logan's mom, Shannon, has thrown an over-the-top gingerbread house decorating party at their house every December since Logan was 3 years old. The party continues to get bigger each year, as she invites everyone from Logan's previous class and everyone in his current class! She said she and her husband used to stay up until 2am making and assembling the gingerbread houses from scratch, but in the past few years they have bought them pre-made from Central Market. She easily has enough gingerbread houses for 50 kids spread on low tables as well as on the dining room table and on tables set up in the living room. I see Shannon nearly every morning at drop-off and always enjoy standing around talking to her before she has to drive into Dallas for work. She is such a down-to-earth woman and just easy and fun to talk with. During one morning prior to the party, she told me that Sofia was welcome to join in the party as well since she always wants to invite siblings too. So thoughtful of her and Sofia was probably even more excited than Olivia to go! Olivia was mainly excited because her best friend Hannah, who lives across the street from Logan, would be going to the party too.

Somehow we convinced CK to join us, since I've been telling him how over-the-top the party is and how nice and fun Shannon is (and presumably her husband, who I don't think I've ever actually talked with). As soon as we arrived, the girls headed into Logan's entry living room and picked out a gingerbread house to decorate. Sofia, Hannah and Olivia were all in a line decorating - perfect for pictures! Antonio was also nearby but the girls didn't get much of a chance to play with him. The girls had a ball decorating their respective gingerbread houses, using the frosting and various candies offered in bowls around each house. I couldn't even imagine how much time it took Shannon to pull the party together and get organized! Besides the spread of candies, frosting and houses, there was a full spread of food for adults in the kitchen. There was fried chicken, meatballs in a spicy sauce, salad and lots of cheese and crackers. It was all delicious!

Sofia took the longest decorating her house and it was fun to watch her really focus on how it turned out. Meanwhile, Olivia and Hannah enjoyed decorating, eating candy and joking around. They really are the cutest friends and have so much fun together. The little ones ran off and played after they were finished, while Sofia spent at least another 30 minutes finishing up her house. We hung out at the party for a while before giving our thanks and heading home with the decorated gingerbread houses. They were both so cute and we put them on the kitchen island to decorate for Christmas. Of course, somehow pieces of candy would "disappear" over the coming weeks.

Winter, the girl's elf, likes to draw self-portraits