The Train Wreck!

Well, I had a Martha Stewart moment today!  Thought Aidan and I would have some 'quality time' decorating a gingerbread 'train' for the holidays!  Before the little love of my life arrived, I got everything organized...the base, complete with 'snow', the gingerbread train pieces all lined  up ready to 'glue' together, the various candies and decorations all in their own little bowls.  Ahh...Martha would be so proud!

The base...complete with 'snow'!

On went 'Raffi's Christmas Songs' on the stereo, for that little bit of 'ambience'.  Let the fun begin!  Aidan, perched on a stool at the kitchen counter, and Nana with icing bag at the ready.  It all looked so easy!  And yet...I managed somehow to mix up the gingerbread pieces (the square pieces all look the same, OK!) and proceeded to stress and frazzle over 'gluing' first the 'engine' and then the 'caboose' scraping and wiping beads of icing along the way!

The 'engine' and 'caboose'!

For some strange and wonderful reason, the little love of my life thought all of this was hilarious!  At first I wanted to cry with frustration, but the sight and sound of Aidan roaring with laughter at all the wrecked train pieces scattered about the kitchen counter, soon had me laughing as well!  To top it all off, poor Raffi and his songs were drowned out by the sound of my little grandson singing 'O Canada' at the top of his lungs!  Ahh...the best laid plans of mice and men... or crazy Nana's!

The 'rock' filled 'caboose'!

All was not lost, however!  I am truly amazed at the ability of smarties and jelly tots to cover up a multitude of icing errors!  Once I (more or less) got the 'engine' assembled, and the 'caboose' to (more or less) stay 'glued' together, I went mad with the icing nozzle as Aidan covered the train and the 'landscape' with candies...smarties, jelly tots, chocolate buttons, chocolate 'rocks' for the railway tracks, drunken teddy bear jujubes sprawled along the 'railway track' and chocolate santas and snowmen doing cartwheels in the snow!

A happy little boy and his 'train wreck'!

Not sure yet if this will become an annual tradition!  I guess it's a bit like childbirth...eventually, over time, we forget how painful it was, and do it all over again!