2nd annual gingerbread house decorating contest...

If there is one thing I can count on, it is that I can always interest my boys in doing something if I call it a contest.  There's just something about competing and possibly winning that gets them every time.  The other thing we love is traditions, especially around the holidays.  So our family has an annual gingerbread house decorating contest.  Although, in looking through our family photo album (I mean blog), we realized we hadn't done this in three years.

The teams were the same this year, Mark and John versus Anne and Luke.  Of course, we have no one to judge the contest and no prize and so it is a contest in name only.  It is a friendly competition and both sides cheated by stealing decorating ideas and candy from their opponents.

Due to an accident (meaning Grace accidentally pulled one of the kits off the table and it broke), the two kits were not the same as I originally planned but the houses both turned out pretty good.  Both sides declared themselves the winner.  The boys plotted ways to get people to come over and vote, like asking all our neighbors to come over and vote or holding a party for all our friends so they could vote. 

But in the end, Grace decided the winner.  The day after the contest, she pulled one of the houses off the table and it shattered into a million pieces (dramatic commentary provided by John).  Since it was Mark and John's house, Luke and I declared ourselves the winners!  And we no longer keep anything of any importance on tables that can be reached by Grace...