Outside the Box

Kyle and I made gingerbread houses last night (Kevin was kind enough to hold fussy Miss Marie). This wasn't a well-planned activity, it was more of a last-minute affair. It was a "Oh, there's still an hour before bedtime. I'm sure we can squeeze in some more holiday cheer." Gotta make the most of this special season, right?

So Kyle and I set to work on our high-quality graham-cracker gingerbread houses. I didn't even make homemade frosting, it came right out of the tube. We worked with what we had - some tubes of green and white frosting, Skittles, gum drops, cinnamon candies, and some fantastic rainbow licorice Kyle had conned me into buying at the grocery store earlier in the week.

We had fabulous time, with candy flying everywhere and frosting smeared on the carpet. But I learned something in the process: I'm a by-the-book kind of girl. I have visions in my head of what a proper gingerbread house should like, and I build accordingly. I can guarantee almost every gingerbread house I've built in my entire life has looked something like this (most a little more elaborate than this):



However, my son doesn't share my way of thinking. I'd give a suggestion on what would be "aesthetically pleasing" and he'd reject it. Meanwhile, I'd wonder (in my head, of course) what on earth he was building with all of that licorice and frosting. I just couldn't figure his little project out. We were on two different pages, we were.

But I think I need someone to teach me how to think outside the box. Because I ended up being very jealous of Kyle's house:


Isn't that awesome?! So much better than my boring building.