Gingerbread Evening

On Thursday, Rick and I surprised the boys with a Gingerbread experience over at Gaylord National (a fancy, schmancy hotel with lots of family-friendly activities). Their theme this year is Dreamworks, so we got to meet all kinds of characters while we decorated our gingerbread family and house.

And here we go with the pictures. Here we are at the gingerbread kitchen:

And just to prove I was there:

This is us just about to start decorating. Notice that the Brandt and Khyah are looking at something to the right . . .

That's because Gingy from Shrek appeared:

I know you can't hear it, but I can. It's a choir singing "Laaaaaaaah!!!" Seriously, love at first sight. Brandt was jumping out of his skin with excitement. Luckily we were pretty much the only ones there, because Brandt kept going back to give Gingy hug after hug after hug . . .

However, Khyah would not go near him. Not for anything.

That said, she was pretty upset when he left to go perform in his show. Women.

So first we decorated our gingerbread cookies. Daddy may have helped Khyah.

But the boys worked alone. They had definite ideas about what they wanted:

In case you're wondering, Brandt is making it snow sprinkles on Gingy.

Rick made his:

And I made mine:

And voila, our gingerbread family. Those smallish blobs are two dogs and a cat. Can't you tell?

Right about then, the Dreamworks show started, but the bakers promised to guard our work with their lives so we could go watch.

Again, Khyah wouldn't go near, but she insisted on being held so she could safely watch from a distance. When they left, she was sad.

Then they lit the big, hanging glass Christmas tree. It went from this:

To this:

Again, you should be hearing, "Laaaaaah!!!"

After the show ended, we went back and worked laboriously to finish our gingerbread family's house.

Daddy got a bit upset when the kids wanted to help put up the lights on the awning. They weren't as diligent about following his established color pattern as he would have liked.

And voila! Our house:

Then time to carefully pack up the ensemble. Daddy refused help.

But we got it safely home . . . right up until I pulled the thing from the box. But luckily, we brought home the extra frosting so we could fix it. :D

All in all, we had a great time!