'Tis the Season

Mallory snacked her way through her first evening of building gingerbread houses on Saturday night. She had the luxury of building and decorating not one, not two, but three houses that Jeff and Jenny brought over. They also packed an entire bag full of extra decorating supplies that Mallory was able to taste test before she "glued" them onto her houses. These tasty treats included (but are not limited to) licorice, jelly beans, sprinkle covered chocolate candies, and M&Ms. It only took our Foreman Jeff, a few extra minutes and one, sort of, failed attempt at a chimney to get the correct construction plan in action. Jenny was along for the decorating. Her visions of candy cane wreaths and chocolate sprinkle sidewalks were soon put to shame when Mallory vetoed those ideas opting instead for licorice doorways and "Daddy sliding down the roof" for her decorating styles.

It was probably a little bit of the season we are in, and a lot more of just my emotions in general, but two of my worlds collided on Saturday night. With Mallory I am a mom. Most of the time with the Lindners I am a (hip and super cool) friend, usually enjoying a night out without my kids. They fully embraced the activity and spoiled the heck out of my daughter and I was awe struck. Does that sound weird? It may, but it was true. They could have spent their Saturday night doing anything else; but instead they chose to make not only Mallory's night, but weekend. I sat back watching them work with Mallory and I felt so lucky to have people like that in my family's life. I snapped pictures and then we laughed that it would make the blog. I (sort of) promised that it wasn't for the blog but more for Mallory. Which is true, but how could I not show you how much fun she had with two super great people. We said we may have started a tradition with our first annual Gingerbread house extravaganza, and I sure hope we have a second, third, fourth..... Thanks for the memories Jenny and Jeff!