Holiday Sweetness

As far as family traditions go, we have few.  Actually, I think we really only have two.  And they both have to do with building.  Funny.

This weekend we built our annual gingerbread house.  We meant to build it during the Thanksgiving holiday, but didn't managed to squeeze it in.  I finally got around to making the dough and the templates for the house.  We had a nice assortment of candies to choose from.  The kids were so eager to decorate it.

We started with snow caps on the roof.  Annie ate a few instead of putting them on the roof.  She also licked a few and stuck them on there...

Gumdrops adorn the lawn with gummy bears acting as garden gnomes.  The door and windows are lining with M&M's.  (Funny side note: Orry made sure that all the "M"s faced up and were oriented correctly.)  Isaac insisted that there be a wicked witch looking out the window.  I don't know who told him the tale of Hansel and Gretel, but he seems to be in the know.  Here's our end product:

The kids had a fun time making it and today they had a great time eating it.  I'm not placing any bets on how long the house will last, but my guess is that with Troy around, it won't be for long.  

(If anyone is interested in making their own gingerbread house, I strongly encourage you to do so!  No need for a store bought kit.  I found an easy gingerbread recipe in a holiday cookie book that I have.  The recipe makes 4 dozen cookies or so and there was plenty for our small house.  Making the templates can be easy too.  You can get them online or draw them up yourself.   Be sure to bake the pieces and little longer to make sure they are hard and will make a sturdier house. This year we took a short cut and bought ready made icing.  And if you want to get fancy, you can make actual windows in your house by using broken up hard candies that melt to make the window panes.)

Our Family Tradition

My little Becker family has a summertime tradition.  I didn't realize it was a tradition until this year, when Troy said, "We need to build our yearly sandcastle.".  Could it be?  Did we really make a sandcastle every year.  Well, let's see.  

That is the castle from 2006.  We made it to Pensacola, FL before Orry came along.  (Troy and I also made a castle in 2005, but we weren't married and I don't have a picture to show you, so does it count?)  

And that is 2007's sandcastle.  That year we went to Destin, FL.  Orry was somewhere between 10 and 11 months.  Here's what he looked like:

He didn't particularly like the ocean.  But he didn't dislike it either.  When kids go the ocean for the first time it is pretty amazing.  It is such a vast thing to behold.  I can understand the excitement that is mixed with fear as the waves break over their shoulders.  The feeling that they could just be swept away into that big sea...

Now our journey takes us to 2008 and Korea.  That sandcastle was built by Troy and his brother, Trent.  We were in Yang Yang, South Korea, looking at the Sea of Japan.

Here we are when Orry was two, Isaac was a wee little 4 month old, Troy was less bald, and I was rocking a "new mom for the second time" haircut.  This was before we learned that Koreans preferred that we called the Sea of Japan the East Sea.

A year later we were still in Korea.  This time we journeyed to Donghae to build a sandcastle.  And here you can still see the East Sea.  

In 2010 we moved to Houston, TX.  Looking back, it was a good move to make in regards to this family tradition.  Now we live about 1 hour away from Galveston.  So here we are in Galveston, making another sandcastle. 

It was a great beach trip because Orry got over his fear of being in the water.  Isaac was thrilled to jump right in and I think this encouraged his older brother a bit.  

Another reason that it was so great was because we brought our newest addition along for the ride.  (Well, we couldn't just leave her home alone...)

And that is our sandcastle from today.  It was a lovely time filled with sand, sun, and salty water.  

Annie didn't like the sand or the water.  But she did like getting her beach pose on.

Troy was the work horse.  I was the baby monitor.

Isaac kept his shirt on for "swimming".  He sure loved the water.  He loved getting it in his mouth and then spitting everywhere to try and get it out.  

And Orry.  Well, Orry was busy showing the babes where the beach was...