Sidenote: While making casual conversation at Schwartzmas, Vickie had asked me if the kids were returning to school on Monday, January 3rd. I sadly responded yes and that I could not believe the long break was already coming to an end. Overhearing this, Natalie asked me if I was sure because her friend who teaches school had told her that kids return on Tuesday, January 4th and only the teachers come Monday. Hmmm. Well, I decided I needed to investigate. Sure enough, the kids were not due back until Tuesday. Thankfully the events transpired this way because otherwise, the Schwartz boys and I would have been standing at the bus stop promptly at 7:40 a.m. waiting on a bus that would never arrive. Note to self: After sending Huey to school in pajamas on the wrong day, and nearly sending both of them back to school on a non-school day, you must do a better job of keeping it together!
With our final day of freedom, I decided we should probably decorate the gingerbread house that we never got into. Houston helped me erect the structure. I opened all the individual candy bags from the kit and dumped everything into a community bowl. Once that was completed, I called for the rest of the kiddos to come help.
Hawkins could not refrain from eating the candy. The kid is a serious candy junkie. After being reprimanded again and again for eating the candy, he devised his own "compromise". He would take a nibble of each piece of candy before placing it on the house. Hayes is the one who discovered it. Hayes announced disgustingly, "Mom! Hawkins is putting candy on that he already ate!" Hayes then became fixated on yanking each piece off that Hawkins had tasted.
After finishing the house, the kids each had a "character" to decorate that sat outside the house. Hawkins had a Christmas tree and with his lead, they all attempted to sing "O, Christmas Tree O, Christmas Tree" for the next 10 minutes. Of course no one knew anymore words to the song that just the title. Therefore, it involved a bunch of humming as well. Houston decorated the gingerbread man to have blue eyes just like him. Hayes decorated the snowman and took care to give him three buttons on his coat. The entire project took a good 45 minutes to complete.
Not interested in having it occupy space on my counter for days, I immediately turned them loose on devouring it. The characters went first and vanished within 92 seconds. Next were the gumballs, followed by the rest of the candy. Ten minutes later (no lie), here's what the poor gingerbread house had been reduced to:
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