Making Gingerbread Houses

How much do I love getting all the nieces and nephews together to make gingerbread houses! Of course every year we joke that the next year we are going to leave the kids with their dads and just make the gingerbread houses by ourselves, but the truth is that I absolutely love the excitement and noise that the kids bring.

We tried to get the kids to sit by the tree for a group shot. Hmmm...getting eight kids to sit, look at the camera, and smile. Add two crazy dogs to the mix and you begin to understand why our pictures turned out the way they did.

Cohen thought the day was fabulous. We had two tables covered with candy and I put him in his highchair. He immediately began signing "more" which means he is ready to eat! I gave him some bites of a gingerbread cookie (which he loved) and he didn't stop signing "more" until I took him out of the highchair. Usually he sees when the food is all gone and signs "all done," but with the amount of candy we had on the tables, he was never going to be "all done."

Today we went to Robby's parent's house to take a picture for their Christmas cards. Robby's mom had the best idea last year -- to take a picture of all the grandkids sitting in Christmas pajamas as Granddad read them a story. She even planned what the cards would say -- "Hope this Christmas season finds you surrounded by love." We were so touched when she decided to wait until this Christmas to make these Christmas cards so that Cohen could be in the picture too.