Bringing Down the House

One pleasure of having a pile of small and vigorous children, according to moi, is creating new family traditions.

New tradition is an oxymoron, yeah, but some of the things we’ve started doing only a few years ago we’ve been doing for lifetimes from our kids’ points of view.

I like being Santa Claus and Easter Bunny. I like dollarstore decorations and holiday-themed crafts. You can make a little magic or you can default with some “let’s not bother”. Either way, when holidays roll around, you are making traditions.

To me, it’s rewarding to go the “let’s make a fuss” route. Shining faces, hopeful whispers, shared memories: Oliver shouting, “OH. MY. GOD! How did LANTA know I’d like MODELLING CLAY IN MY LOCKING?! Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaat? CHOCOLATE? How did HIM know I’d like chocolate?”

As much as children thrive on repition and ritual, they sure take to an occasion. Especially ones involving things they aren’t ordinarily allowed to touch or do — like lighting candles or smashing things.

That’s why a favourite new tradition of ours is the smashing of the Gingerbread House. If you are wondering what to do with your gingerbread house or how to store your gingerbread house, Do try this at home:

Bringing Down the House from Marlene Flurfel on Vimeo.

Gus fact: Gus loves gingerbread. He snorfels up a lot of food items from the floor but few with the relish of gingerbread. The aroma of gingerbread baking in the oven makes him positively attentive. Undoubtably this has something to do with children loving to make and decorate gingerbread much more than they like eating it. The snorfling of floor-gingerbread is one of Gus’ favourite New Year’s traditions.