I ♥ Faces - Week 50 : Holiday Traditions

As a “young” family, we are just starting our own family holiday traditions. We made our own Christmas cards last year and did it again this year. Josh also decided to make his own Christmas ornaments this time around and we had so much fun doing them that I can see us doing this every year.

We finally did the gingerbread house on Saturday. I am not sure if this will be a holiday tradition for us, only because it is not easy to get the gingerbread house kit around these parts, but it is something that both kids really enjoyed doing, so we’ll see. This is Zoë’s first gingerbread house and Josh’s second. Both had been looking forward to when we would do the gingerbread house ever since I bought it at the bazaar almost a month ago.

I divided up the sweets into separate containers for Josh and Zoë, so that they’d each have their own. I had had to add the M&M’s, ‘sugared worms,’ and the chocolate pieces, because the kit came with only a handful of gumdrops.

Initially, I was really worried that Zoë might not be able to restrain herself and might end up eating all the sweets instead of using them to decorate. Guess what? She did NOT eat a single piece of candy!!When Chris popped one in his mouth, she reminded him, “You don’t eat the candy, Daddy!” That said, she was rather reluctant to put the chocolate piece onto the icing and appeared to be thinking what a waste of fine chocolate it would be to just use it to decorate!

Zoë’s side of the house

Josh’s side of the house

They’ve both been pretty good while working on the kit,

but as soon as the gingerbread house was done, little fingers kept “accidentally” touching the icing. They were hovering around the gingerbread house and eyeing the candies all night.

I caught Zoë with her little finger on the icing today and when I called her name, she froze, looked sideways at me and flashed me a sheepish grin. Still without removing her finger from the icing, she raised her eyebrows inquiringly and when I shook my head, she gave a smile and went away from the table. She was trying to see if she could disarm me with her sweet smile as she often could…

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There is something magical about children’s enjoyment of little things and it’s even more magical at this time of the year. The Christmas tree, getting a letter from Santa, the promise of Santa’s visit, the presents, the lights, the singing along to Christmas carols, saying ‘Happy Birthday’ to baby Jesus… This is “most favoritest” time of the year.

Click here to read more about other holiday traditions from the wonderful friends over at I ♥ Faces.