Last year, our playgroup (and over 500 other kids) went to the Gingerbread House Christmas Carnival. It was crowded, it was chaotic and crazy! The kids had fun decorating the gingerbread houses but the line to visit Santa was too long and, at that time, we all vowed that "next year" we would do something different. We wanted our kids to have a fun time but the parents did not want to have to deal with the stress and commotion of such a large event. Fast forward ten months to October 2007 when I find an article in Family Fun Magazine about building and decorating gingerbread trains. I saved the article and when the info for this years Carnival came out, we "cooked" up our own anti-Carnival, complete with Santa. (No offense to Tu Casa, the local shelter program for battered women and their families, who sponsors this event.) Our group consists of mostly boys who are wild about trains, so this was the perfect activity! Some of us moms met on Friday morning to assemble everything so that the kids only had the chore of decorating the engines on Saturday afternoon. We had ten kids (eleven, if you count Tony) who participated and we all had a wonderful and stress free time! The afternoon ended with a visit from Jolly Old St. Nicholas who was happy to visit with the children and pose for photos.
pre-assembled trains, ready to be decorated
Jamie decorating his engine
Tony "in the zone"
a great playgroup activity
Jamie & Parker
Jamie with finished masterpiece
a little talk with Santa
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