Gingerbread House Decorating Day!!

So those of you who are facebook friends know this past Sunday was our annual Graham Cracker Gingerbread House decorating day.  This is such a fun tradition with the grandkids - I look forward to it every year.  So here's the table set with fun decorating stuff -

and of course the houses :) If you want to see how we made the little houses - there are pictures and directions HERE.

Let the decorating begin - 

Makai, Heidi, Zavian and Prince

Prince, Jenee and Zamarah

Kamili and Paisley

And here are the proud creators and their final creations -

PAISLEY

PRINCE

ZAMARAH

KAMILI

MAKAI

ZAVIAN

And my girls also had to get in on the action -

JENEE

HEIDI

Then each year we take a picture of the kids with Gramma - we snapped about 15 pictures - which all ended up being craziness - here are just a couple of them -

Crazy smiles on some of those kids and I wasn't expecting the rabbit ears!!

More crazy looks - if I could photoshop I could probably come up with one great picture - but this definitely shows personalities!!

The rest of the day was great - spent some time doing Wii dance while the Turkey Dumpling 

Soup finished - then all sat down to a great lunch!  The kids especially love the dumplings - which were my Mom's (GRAMMA O's) recipe and one of my favorites.  So easy I'll share here - first make your soup - chicken stock, turkey, carrots, celery, peas, potatoes - whatever veggies you want, season with pepper.  Cook till all veggies are tender. In a bowl mix 1/2 stick melted butter with 1 cup flour and 1 egg, pinch of salt, 1/2 t black pepper. Stir till mixed will lose it's stickiness. (You can double or triple this if you want more dumplings)  Bring soup to a boil, break off walnut sized pieces and drop into boiling soup - cook at least 10 minutes - I like to cook mine longer - about 1/2 hour so they really get the flavor of the stock.  TIP - if you soup is already salty - leave the salt out of the dumplings - it will pick up enough from the soup. Stop back soon - and leave a comment on a favorite Holiday Tradition you have!! ~Maureen