Gingerbread Fun

One day last week, I was helping Dylan search for some fun, interactive Christmas games that he could play online. We found a few really cute ones, but particularly enjoyed the ones with gingerbread cookies. He had a great time decorating his own gingerbread boy at this site, and especially loved this one, where he decorated his own cookie, wrote his own message, e-mailed it to Darren at work, and then called him on the phone to tell him to check his inbox!

Today I wanted to do something fun with my kids, something crafty that didn't involve baking. (I love baking, but that's been my default "fun" for the past couple of weeks and I figured we could all use a little change of pace.) I still have the colorful sheets of foam I bought just after Thanksgiving (thinking, at the time, that I'd use them to make ornaments) and so, using an X-Acto knife, I cut from them some shapes of a gingerbread family (I used a couple of basic templates that I printed off the internet). Next, using our assorted bottles of glitter glue, we decorated our "cookies". These were so easy! The hardest part, for me, was waiting for them to dry!

After letting them "set" for a few hours, I took a paper plate, cut out the center, wrapped the resulting ring with gold ribbon, tied a red bow to the top, and attached our little gingerbread family to the perimeter, creating a sweet wreath which is now hanging on the door to our bedroom. And I love it!