Gingerbread houses and a trip to visit Santa

We've continued the Boley Gingerbread house tradition

With minor differences...

Carol Boley used to make her Gingerbread houses from scratch...

That's right, 

Mix the ingredients,

Roll out the dough

Cut the shapes

And bake.

She's amazing.

I'm not as amazing...

So, I buy the kits.

No mixing, rolling or baking.

This year we invited Luigi to our party...

And his little brother, Mario.

And even Luigi's older brother, Luigi.

Andrew had a "stache" too, but had washed it off before I grabbed the camera.

The finished product didn't have a chance with this guy around.

Guess where we are...

The kids always find great ways of entertaining themselves (and us)

While we waited for our good friends, the Glovers.

Drake

Andrew

Cooper

Barik

After good food, we planned on going to the McCormick Train park

For good times and the annual picture with Santa.

(I HAVE to have this Santa Picture for our annual calendar)

While we were eating, Dan and Becky told us about this AMAZING Santa at Bass Pro.

They went on and on about his REAL beard,

His big belt buckle,

His cottage,

His stuffed Reindeer (the real kind) "grazing" near him.

They were very convincing.

And Bass Pro was just around the corner.

But guess what...

The tickets to see and sit with Santa were

GONE!

Handed out to the 100's of people standing in the line snaking through the store.

But guess what?!

They had a Merry-go-round,

Remote control cars,

Shooting ranges for plastic guns,

And LOTS of stuffed mountain goats, mountain lions, and deer on the walls all around us.

Andrew and Danny look like they could be brothers.

They even made identical funny faces.

Who needs a picture with Santa when you can have a picture with a

Real Life Sized Fake Snowman?

(This one made the cut for the annual calendar)

Thanks for hanging out with us, Glovers!

I wish we lived closer so we could laugh at you more often.