Another tradition ends in tragedy...

Tonight, after dinner, we embarked on another one of our holiday traditions that we've been doing with the kids....building gingerbread houses and trains.  We've done it for 5 years now, even before Syd was born.  It makes an incredible mess and we usually have a couple of squabbles, but everyone ends up laughing and having a good time.  Spencer and I worked on the train while Syd and Christine took on the house.  Christine and I put the basic structures together and the kids end up putting on all the decorations (at least what's left of the candy that they haven't eaten!).

Syd posing by the early stages of the house

Spencer adding some candy details to the train

All appears to be going okay.  However, the icing that holds the walls together starts to lose some of its stickiness with the heat in the house.  As such, things start to droop and sag....

...And pretty soon you're roof is in the living room!!

Finally, you end up with catastrophic failure of the structure.  Sort of like a mini gingerbread earthquake took it down.

At least the gingerbread men and christmas tree survived the devastation.

And the winner is.....Spencer's choo-choo train.  As of 30 minutes after finishing, it's still standing.  Pretty good job by the boys!

Another holiday tradition continues...

That's right.  It's JibJab time!  Check out the mad skills by Spencer and our friend Bob.

Click on the link to view the video.

http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/FlnKYuGAC0KfAa0bh09b


By the way, the sporadic snow flurries today as predicted by the local weather guy turned into a few inches of snow.  Sweet!