Another Fun Tradition for the Season -- Building Candy Houses

Everyone has traditions that they repeat again and again over the years. One of ours is decorating graham cracker houses. We usually do it during the Christmas season, but if we miss it we can play catch up on Valentine's Day or have a Christmas in July event. One of our granddaughters is a tremendous artist and her houses are always exquisite. She's grown up now, but still enjoys the project when she's around for it.

The first time we did it many years ago, I let the kids put the houses together, but the frosting wasn't hard enough and they all collapsed when the roofs went on. So I started making the hard decorating icing and constructing the houses before decoration day.

We often save the candy house building for the Christmas season when we enter the long celebration. In fact, we will make a date with our daughter and her family to do that later. But today we invited a family from the chapel to join us for lunch with their seven children and enjoy the candy house tradition with us. Everyone had a great time. One of the littlest had a catastrophe when he dropped his house. Fortunately, there was an extra one that I decorated since oldest big brother didn't want to join; so I sent mine home with Johnny and assured him that his house had been in a cyclone, but the ruins would still taste good. Tears had started but were soon dried up. 

We have a lot of religious traditions during Advent and Christmas: the Advent wreath, the Jesse Tree, etc., but I can always find a link between any activity and scripture. Think about all the scripture verses about house and home. Here are just a few:

• Every one therefore that heareth my words, and doth them, shall be likened to a wise man that built his house upon a rock. [Matthew 7:24]

• As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. [Joshua:24:15]

• By wisdom the house shall be built, and by prudence it shall be strengthened. [Proverbs 24:3]

Hospitality is another tradition, and that's one to enjoy year round, especially on Sundays. When our children were young, we often invited a family we were chatting with in the parking lot after Mass to come home and join us for "big breakfast." Everyone would take part in helping: setting the table, stirring the scrambled eggs, filling the juice glasses. Sunday was family and friend day and socializing with others was a joy that made the day special. 

Now that the two of us are on our own, hospitality has become even more important to us. We love to have Camp Kreitzer ringing with laughter and fun. Today I got down the roaring dinosaur and all the puppets and introduced them to the kids. The wooden puzzles were spread all over and the cars and trucks were zooming across the floor. When everyone left Larry and I agreed it was a fun day we want to repeat often. 

What are your special traditions? We love to try new things: a special recipe, a game everyone loves to play, a song (Almost Heaven West Virginia is a big one here). Give me some new ideas, please.