On the Eleventh Day of Christmas, My Daughter Gave to Me…Time, Energy and Wisdom Building a Gingerbread Castle.

My daughter and I love building gingerbread houses for the holiday, but last year she was very ill, so we didn’t get the chance. As we sat down to get started this year with the Super Mario Brothers Castle she selected, I realized that I forgot one major step. As Quinn read the instructions, she paused and then said, “Mommy, after applying the icing and putting the sides together, it has to sit for two to three hours.”

At first, I thought she was going to be discouraged and become disinterested, but my six year old didn’t mind waiting. In fact, she wisely said, “We want the structure to be strong so it doesn’t fall apart when we’re decorating it. We can find something else to do while we’re waiting.”

After time passed, she consulted the picture on the box and determined how she wanted her castle to look. At first, she copied it as it was on the box, but then she said, “You know what, I can use certain ideas from the picture and do other decorations the way I want.” I told her that was a great idea.

My job was to add gumdrops around the door, but I quickly noticed that the amount included in the package was far less than what was displayed in the picture. Quinn reassured me, “You know sometimes they make it seem like it’s more just to get you to buy it. They do that on menus and commercials too when they make food look really good, but when you order it, it doesn’t look as good. We can still make our gingerbread castle look nice with the gumdrops we have!”

Once we completed the castle and took a few pictures, Quinn smiled and said, “I sure would like to see how it tastes!” We both thought it was a great treat.

Who would have thought there would be so many teachable moments from building a gingerbread house for the holidays? Who would have thought my daughter would be the one sharing lessons with me?!

All the best,

Tanya