GRAHAM CRACKER HOUSES - 2019

Last night was the first time we've done anything festive as a family this Christmas season and we had just over an hour together. Perfect time for making graham cracker houses! And by "perfect time" I mean that various factors had tension mounting between different Ws, I was hunkered down to cry in the living room for a few minutes beforehand, and we only had about one hour to cram some fun into. That kind of perfect. 

Eventually we all made it to the dining table and had a good time listening to Christmas songs, eating cookies from friends, and laughing as we assembled our graham cracker creations. All's well that ends well, right?

Working our way around the table, here's each W at the start of our time and their finished product at the end.

Tyler - 

He's still at an age where his primary goal is to get as much candy on as little graham cracker as possible. (Candy which he's not supposed to eat now that he has braces, but he forgot about that.) He did make a mini house at the last minute, so I'll give him some maturity points for that.

Naomi - 

She said she was going to make a greenhouse, until Devon reminded her that greenhouses have all the flowers on the inside, not the outside. Ha! So she created a flower garden of candy in some specific patterns around and on top of the building and randomly scattered more candy on the plate.

 Tim -

He was tired and feeling a little cruddy, but managed to whip together a standing structure with windows, a door, and a tiny chimney before he called it a night. Bonus points for the festive colors and for being a good sport!

Silas -

He opted for abstract art this year. It was funny to see him being meticulous about exactly where everything had to be placed. He has pretty much no free time right now and feels neutral about graham cracker houses, so I appreciate that he inconvenienced himself to join us.

Devon -

It's not a contest, but this kid always leaves the rest of us in the graham cracker dust. He carefully decorated the roof first, then opted for really simple wall decorations in order to get done at a reasonable hour.

See that pile of white above? The small structure behind it is a garage that he was going to make a car for. Ran out of time and decided to make a snowdrift that he said blocked the view of the (non-existent) car inside. I asked why were wasn't snow anywhere else. He laughed and said the roof just got a dusting, which melted and watered the flowers by the door, but some kids pulled a prank by depositing the huge mound by the garage. Ha! Nice save, buddy!

I'll go ahead and show the back of his since it's more elaborate that everyone else's.

Bethany -

The good news is I had a four-walled structure with a roof that remained standing for quite a while. Like at least five minutes. That's a record for me! Upon my house's collapse, I decided to make it a monument to poor engineering. The little orange candies are what sets it apart as a monument instead of just a house with a caved in roof. Obviously.

All 6 Ws -

And all six graham cracker creations.

It was a fun way to spend a little bit of time on Christmas Adam!