Well, as I type my fingers are still sticky with royal icing. \u00a0I just finished assembling \u00a0the cottage structure of the gingerbread house, so that tomorrow it will be nice and sturdy for little hands to decorate with a multitude of colored, sweet and tangy candies. \u00a0I am not going in with expectations of a perfectly decorated gingerbread cottage that would grace the pages of “Good Housekeeping.” \u00a0I am well aware that with having \u00a01 and 3-year-old designers, perfection is not what we are going for. \u00a0We will be going for perfectly imperfect. \u00a0I imagine between the sugar rush and their little fingers that the finished product will be lucky to come away with all four walls and the roof still attached. \u00a0I want to create the memories my children will carry with them as they grow and one day have their own families. \u00a0I think those things are so much more important than material things. \u00a0So late at night I fumble with the piping bags of sticky icing and mutter under my breath as it takes me a few tries to get the structure standing. \u00a0 Tomorrow I will be whipping up another batch of the sticky stuff \u00a0to use as glue for the decorations.<\/p>\n

Visions of chubby little hands sneaking tastes of the sticky sweet stuff and thinking that it is the greatest thing in the world to be decorating with the vast array of treats. \u00a0I am sure they will be in Gum Drop Heaven, with all the colors and textures and tastes. \u00a0 It will be a lot of messy fun and I am looking forward to capturing their little faces on camera. \u00a0Those are the memories I want to keep long after the cookie house has crumbled away. \u00a0I love seeing the joy of the season through little eyes just discovering \u00a0things for the first time. \u00a0To see the wonder and the amazement of the season in their faces is so incredible. \u00a0I am so blessed to be able to go through this again as my it just goes by in a blink as I know with my older kids. \u00a0God was so great to have blessed me with the opportunity to experience it again. \u00a0I am so very grateful.<\/p>\n