There was a lot of anticipation for the events of Friday the 17th. All week long we had been preparing for the daycare next door, Kids R Us, to come over and help us decorate some gingerbread houses. Rather than baking off pounds and pounds of cardboard-like gingerbread to construct houses, we used actual cardboard (matter-of-fact, we used corrugated fiberboard, as we were briefly educated by the industry-specialists — there’s a difference, cardboard is solid while corrugated fiberboard is fluted hahaha…) We got a 5-gallon bucket of royal icing from Delite Bakery up the street and a bunch of candy from Costco and neighboring grocery stores. By the time all the candy was set out, the frosting in individual bags for each kid, and the houses were ready to go, I started to realize that I may actually be more excited than the kids for this whole thing to happen. But as soon as they walked through the door, I could tell that wasn’t true. It was like each kid had one of Willy Wonka’s own golden tickets…big eyes, candy cravings, and plenty of ideas for sticking sweets to a house.
The kids were a lot of fun and brought a lot of creativity, positive attitudes, and even manners! Such a polite group of little kids, “sirs” and “pleases” and “thank yous” were all mixed into the candy-fueled conversation. Kids at heart and actual kids alike bonded over the common interest of candy and good fun. It was great to see Stacy, Scotty, Hillary, Dale, Ted, and Luliia, as well as Ted’s kids get their hands a little sugary and their blood-sugar levels spiked.
I’m pushing for this to be a new company tradition…I don’t think I’ll have to push very hard.