I almost couldn’t wait for our Skype sessions on Christmas Day to see if they loved them as much as I did.

This year, I had my kids do .999 silver thumbprint necklaces for their birth moms.

I love how subtle the design was. I love the deep message it seems to carry. I love that it is 100% unique and 100% personal!

*If you live in the Salt Lake Area or will be traveling here and would like to schedule a sitting to make one of these beauties, send us a “conversation” on The R House Couture’s website and we will get back to you with details. They can also be made into keychains.

Here she is during a recent fun visit with the son she placed.

I wanted her to talk to us about birth parent gifts …and she did not disappoint. Here are some great ideas to consider.

Thanks, Desh!

Special days that a birthmom remembers and especially ponders on with the child(ren) she placed: 

• The day she first made contact with you
• The day she picked you
• The day she gave birth
• The day she placed beebee in your arms
• Birthmothers day
• Mothers day
• Fathers day
• Both you and your spouses’ birthday
• Babys bday (actual bday and the day of each month – 9 mos, 10 mos, 11 mos, etc)
• Major holidays (xmas Easter Halloween thanksgiving Vday etc)
• Birthmoms bday
• The day she found out she was pregnant

It would be beyond amazing to know that you remember these days (if applicable) and take a special moment to ponder as well. A phone call, a card in the snail mail, a quick email, something to know you are thinking of us too means more than we could ever say in human words. By all means, don’t feel obligated, but if youre thinking of us, it helps us to heal to know that you care and remember.

Birthmoms love pictures!

Any and all pictures are very deeply appreciated, BUT we also love not just the ‘posing portraits’ ones, we LOVE real life pictures. We love to see ‘moments’ and candid pics of growing learning playing. We don’t care if the baby/child is looking directly at the camera and smiling perfectly in every single pic, sometimes we’d rather see a pic that truly captures the essence of this little person.  We love pictures of baby with mom, and dad, and siblings, and gparents, we love to see baby with their family. Its good to see everyone loving baby and baby loving everyone. That’s what we wanted when we chose placement.  And yes, honestly, sometimes it does tug the heart strings a little but that’s ok, don’t let that stop you from sharing pics with us or think that you cant be in any of the pics you send, we will deal with it as we know best, maybe that means we wont reply right away or comment on every single picture, but we still would love to have them to see and cherish in our way and time.

Video clips are awesome treats for us!

A simple 30 sec file from your digital camera of baby laughing or smiling or walking or getting messy or easting, etc is such a fun thing to be able to watch over and over and over. Its amazing to be able to ‘see’ and ‘hear’ real life, esp if visits are not possible.

Something fun!

Something that I think would be so fun but have never actually received is a letter themed, ‘a day in the life of ____’ written from the baby’s perspective. Creative, different and personal, I think it would give a great insight and healing confirmation to any  birthmom- a letter like that would confirm the reasons placement was chosen (even if as an Amom you don’t know those specific reasons) and there’s nothing more wonderful for a birthmom than thinking ‘yep, right there, THAT is why I chose placement!’.

Sentiment goes a very long way.

If a gift or card or picture or letter or date is sentimental to you, beebee or birthmom, or better yet all three, then it is a fabulous gesture. For example, I very much heart sunflowers, and the gifts I receive are always wrapped in some sort of sunflower ribbon, a portrait of beebee was framed with a sunflower, and from my side of the spectrum, I give children’s story books that are sunflower themed at xmas and bday. Sentiment just adds that little extra umph of ‘we care about YOU’.

Sincerity!!

The best thing ever is just a simple loving phrase of ‘we love you’, or ‘we love our baby’, or ‘not a day goes by that we don’t remember the blessings and miracle of this adoption’. Use your own vocab words of course, but nothing quite touches the heart of one mother from another, than a simple sincere expression of love.

There is no right or wrong ‘gift’ to give a birthmother.

Any and everything is appreciated beyond words able to be expressed. Sadly though, most birthmothers have never received anything besides an agency-required couple of pictures at the one-year birthday or one annual portrait. Perhaps as you remember your child(ren)s birthmother(s) you can take a moment to remember those of us who have been forgotten as well.

This is my friend Tyler Dixon in the middle in the tux. Obviously.

This photo was taken at his sister’s wedding who happens to be one of my dearest friends from college.

You know Tyler Dixon too.

Did you know that you know him?

He crashed the Super Bowl last year with his hilarious ad called “The Best Part.”

You may have heard Letterman and Fallon mention it on their shows. Among about a billion other honors, Adweek recently released it’s top 20 Most Shared Super Bowl Ads of All Time –Tyler’s ad was #11 …and he made it all on an $82 budget!

So, he is pretty much a big deal.

Anyway, here’s the best part of the story:

Since his ad was selected as one of the top-five, he was awarded a trip to the Super Bowl last year where he met another finalist, Heather Kasprzak. Turns out they started dating (!) and they teamed up this year to make another ad for the Super Bowl. How adorable is that? I mean how many people do you know that met their girlfriend by winning a Super Bowl commercial contest?

Want to help these two love birds get to the Super Bowl again?

Check out their new ad “Dog Park” and learn how to vote here. You can vote every day, even multiple times a day!

Like it and share Dog Park on Facebook.

Hurry! Voting ends this Sunday.

Why you want to help Tyler:

Even though his ad last year went gangbusters, Tyler is unemployed for the most part. One might ask why he would do it again.  ”I figure it’s the biggest stage in the world, so why not do it again and prove to people that it wasn’t a fluke.  I’m just going to keep making great ads and winning contests until people can’t help but notice.  I just refuse to give up.”  Maybe he won’t have to.  If he can get enough votes he will see his “DOG PARK” air during the big game with the possibility of taking home a million dollars.  As an added bonus the winning ad maker wins a contract to work on a future project with Saturday Night Live’s Andy Samberg and The Lonely Island.  When asked about that Dixon responded, “For a comedy writer/director it doesn’t get better than that.  I’ve followed those guys since they were making their own videos and posting them online…that would be a dream come true.”

Go vote for DOG PARK!

We agreed to chat about it as the release date got closer …and here we are!

This is a book about how the adoption process offers hope to all involved. I am so excited to read it!

Jennifer is an infertility survivor and a mother to three kids–two of which happen to be adopted. I love the authentic point of view that her experiences offer her when writing this kind of a novel.

The title and timing of the book are especially poignant for me. (You can read why here if you haven’t already guessed.)

• Jennifer will be giving away some books on her blog. Check it out!
• The book will be officially released on February 8th, 2012.
• You can look for it on Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com as well as in stores like Costco, Deseret Book and Seagull Book.

 

I will be reading it as part of the Adoption Reading Challenge 2012. Join me!

Full Disclosure: I will be compensated for this post.

(((DRUMROLL)))

Head to Disneyland!

Disneyland is a magical place for me. Lots of wonderful, warm memories all came rushing back as soon as we turned on Disneyland Drive. I was teary with anticipation especially when my 4 year old proclaimed, “This is how excited I am: 100 Billion 81!”

Our last night in the park, we went to the World of Color show. (Think the Bellagio fountains–were Mr. R and I got engaged–on happy steroids with clips from movies being projected somehow on the water spray, throw in a little fire and Disney magic and I think you can envision how awesome it was.) The music is really, really loud–not loud enough to wake the 3 year old that was passed out in my arms, but loud enough for me to sing all the princess songs at the top of my lungs without restraint.

When I sang from Pocohantas, “To be safe, we lose the chance of ever knowing what’s around the riverbend, waiting just around the riverbend” I realized how true that was. I realized that there is actually a lot of truth to my current situation in all those beloved Disney songs! (And you KNOW you have them all memorized like I do!) They were just what I needed to help me understand how I feel.

We took a risk opening up our hearts to C and the adoption plan she made for her child for 6 months. We took a chance. It didn’t turn out the way we had dreamed, but we didn’t know exactly what was going to happen.

Truthfully, in mid-November, I wrote C and “gave her an out” telling her that no matter what happened with the adoption that she will always be loved by us. After I sent that email, I sobbed as I was getting ready for a field trip with my son. I think I knew then that it wasn’t going to happen although C had given us no indication that she didn’t want to go through with the adoption plan she set in motion. She reassured us about her decision time after time after time. So …what were we to do? Tell her that we didn’t believe her word, essentially calling her untruthful? I don’t think so.

We moved forward, saved receipts for everything we purchased and continued to love her. We only just had our homestudy completed. Earlier in the week before she told us that she had made a different plan for her baby, we had rearranged the house and set up the nursery as the baby is due any day. (Perhaps already born at this point.) We took the risk because we didn’t know what was waiting for us “just around the riverbend.”

Was it worth it even though it didn’t turn out exactly as we had hoped? Yes, it was. How can loving and helping someone unconditionally ever be wrong?

“No matter how your heart is grieving, if you keep on believing, the dream that you wish will come true.” -Cinderella (my all-time favorite)

Just as we don’t know what’s waiting for us in the future, I also cannot pin-point exactly what my dream for the future is right now, but I hope it involves more babies and children.

I do know something about a grieving heart though …and I think Mickey did too! After we dropped our bags off in our hotel room, we went to breakfast with the characters. We walked in and had our little moment/photo opportunity with The Mouse. He took my kids in his arms and hugged them and kissed them. It was as if he knew what we were going through and was there to make it all better. I was emotional. Such a magical place!

That breakfast will always be a special memory for Gavin–it’s where he fell in love with and was double-fisting bacon!

“A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.” -Mary Poppins

I have nothing deep on this one, but cotton candy for breakfast sure does help as you have to wake up and face the reality of your situation.

“Bittersweet and strange, finding you can change, learning you were wrong.” -Beauty and the Beast

Mr. R often says that knowing if something “was right” is not defined by the outcome. When we were scammed 2 years ago, that definitely was not the outcome we were hoping for, but it was right to try and help her, expose her to the other families she was lying to and let her family know what was going on. (I heard from a blog reader last week that she is at it again. This time she is posting on infertility support group websites. Be careful!)

When C contacted us in July, we asked Heavenly Father to stop us if this wasn’t right for our family. Throughout the whole process, He never stopped us, but He did prepare our hearts for what could happen, what did happen. It was “bittersweet and strange” to feel that way and still feel hopeful.

Previously, I never thought that I would feel the way I do if we were ever in this situation. I thought I would be angry. I thought there would be more tears. I have never been angry about the situation and I haven’t shed a tear about the situation since the night it happened. I almost feel guilty about that. I was wrong about how I would react. In fact, even as I was packing up the nursery the night we found out, I was singing “Let there be peace on Earth and let it begin with me.” How ridiculous is that?

I, for one, cannot even really understand it.

We don’t know how we will react or act in these kinds of situations until we are in them. We are stronger than we think we are. We are braver than we think we are. We can handle more heartache than we think we can. We should give ourselves more credit, trust in ourselves more, take more risks. It doesn’t mean that there wasn’t acute pain to the chest at times, but it passes. It lessens. You can do hard things.

We were going to name this baby Hope. When we came up with the name, it felt good. C seemed to like it, Mr. R seemed to like it, we all know it’s my favorite word …but as the weeks went on, I started to not like that name for her. Maybe my heart knew it wasn’t really her name, that she wasn’t ours to name.

The other day, I saw this on Facebook and it stunned me for a minute. It was perfect.

As Kim said to me the other night at work, “I hope the word HOPE isn’t ruined for you. I love that name. I know your Hope is fighting to get to you.” (Reference THIS post of hers.)

That said, we are not that family that only hopes for one gender of child. In fact, I have a hard time with those kinds of requests. If we are lucky enough to add more children to our family, we would cheer either way–for a boy or a girl.

“Raise our head up, lift high the load. Take strength from those that need you.” -Tarzan

Being alone with our family was the perfect medicine. Standing together in lines (the longest wait was 20 min!), eating together, sleeping in the same room, non-stop talking, riding on rides together, searching for character autographs, me dominating at Toy Story Mania and all hugging and snuggling and memory making was so healing. We are taking strength from the children that we do have that need us. We are celebrating them.

“Oh it’s a jolly holiday with Mary

Mary makes your heart so light

when the day is gray and ordinary

Mary makes the sun shine bright” -Mary Poppins

Mr. R is my favorite. He is so fun and so hilarious. He even sang Disney duets with me in the car. We had deep discussions about the best kinds of beef jerky as we auditioned different brands and flavors at the various gas stations. He gave us an awesome impromptu tour of his mission (Long Beach, Spanish speaking). He entertained us, took care of us and made our gray days shine bright. This entire trip was his doing and his spontaneity. I am a lucky lady and those boys are lucky to have such a dedicated father!

“If You got troubles, then I got ‘em too
There isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for you
If we stick together we can see it through
‘Cause you’ve got a friend in me” -Toy Story

The things that have caused me to be the most emotional over the last 2 weeks is the kindness and love of others. My neighbors are incredible–with watching my kids and bringing over meals. My family is amazing. My parents always instinctively know the perfect thing to say to me in these situations. Almost all of the comments here and on Facebook have been extraordinarily supportive and respectful. The emails, private Facebook messages, Tweets and DMs have been so appreciated and helped us feel loved, supported and distracted.

Thank you for thinking of us.

We are in a good place.

“And I won’t look back
I can go the distance
And I’ll stay on track
No, I won’t accept defeat
It’s an uphill slope
But I won’t lose hope
Till I go the distance
And my journey is complete” -Hercules

We won’t lose hope that the future holds great things for our family.

In fact, did you know that R Family is hoping to adopt?

The night we found out was hard (as discussed here). Our minds were racing (not quite sure about what) and we finally fell asleep around 4:30am. The next day was the hardest. We were zombies–probably from lack of sleep. The day after that there were some infertility moments (you know the kind where your condition punches you in the gut). The day after that I had a heavy heart (apparently the world still goes on even though ours came to a crawl). But since then? We have been okay. Happy. Healing. Moving on from grieving to celebrating the family that we have.

Finding out that the adoption plan you made and hoped for and planned on for half a year has fallen through isn’t exactly joyous news, but it is survivable!

Here are my tips on surviving a failed adoption plan:

Scoop up your 3 year old and put him in your bed around 4am so that his smiling face is the first thing you wake up to in the morning.

Take a shower until all the hot water runs out.

Get dressed in something frilly.

Don’t answer your phone.

Be overwhelmed with gratitude when your neighbor brings you a card that says the perfect thing that touched your heart and an energy bar …little did she know, it was the only thing you ate all day.

Bring everything that needs to be returned to the kitchen counter. Divvy it up among your husband and you. (The sooner the better on this!)

Be extra thankful for the neighbor that let your kids play with hers all day long so that you could deal with said returns.

When driving to Target, be sure to have Creed playing as loud as your ears can handle. (Yes, Creed! LOL) Make sure the bass is turned up so that you can feel the beat in the back of your seat. This will remind you that your heart is still beating.

Have an answer prepared for the dreaded “reason for return” questions you are bound to get at the return desk. Practice this canned response in your car for at least 15 minutes until you can do it without having to think. Creed can help you get pumped for this as well. If all else fails, text your mom and have her make you laugh.

Wander the aisles of Target for at least 2 hours. Spend every last dime of that merchandise credit you just earned on Star Wars and Mickey Mouse presents for your kids. And peanut butter M&Ms.

Let the boys at the Ikea return desk try and cheer you up after you answer the “reason for return” question with “the baby we were hoping for is no longer coming to our family.”

Be grateful for Nordstrom’s return policy–they don’t ask the reason for the return.

When you find yourself at the MAC counter telling them about what your family has been through in the last 6 months, embrace it. When they tell you to sit down so they can do a make over on you, let them. You will be glad you did.

Drink as much soda as possible.

Decide last minute to leave a day early for THEE vacation of awesomeness. Literally throw unfolded clothes into whatever bags you can find and shove them in the car. Then you are off!

When your 4 year old decides that there needs to be a theme song for the trip, let him choose it. When he selects THIS, remind yourself how hilarious your kids are. “La, la, la whatever.”

When the kids are asleep in the car, turn off the radio and chat with your husband for hours on end about the difference between “everything happens for a reason” and “everything that happens has a purpose.” Discuss in great detail how the two of you don’t regret anything that happened over the last half a year.

Find sanctuary in the home of old friends, friends that understand you in a way few others can. And always listen to their restaurant suggestions. They are geniuses.

Eat whatever you want, whenever you want.

Let the salty air, sand and sunshine lift your heavy heart.

Let your kids destroy sand castles and get 150% covered in sand.

Turn your kids into roller-coaster/ride lovers. Make sure they know how lucky they are to be at Legoland without any lines enabling you to just stay on rides several turns in a row. (Gavin wanted to ride in the Coast Guard chopper because his birth grandpa was in the Coast Guard! Adorable, yes?)

Savor this conversation on the way to the San Diego Zoo and laugh about it over and over on your trip:

Josh: Boys, this is supposed to be one of the greatest zoos in the world!

Tys: Do the animals still poop?

Josh: Yes they do.

Tys: So… it isn’t the greatest zoo.

Make up a ridiculous amount of things for your 3 year old to find with his binoculars just so you and your husband can reenact his lunge stance again and again.

Find some koalas to stare at. They are adorable. And feisty!

Take portraits of your kids at the zoo while you are waiting for Mr. R to get treats.

Buy your kids yet another light saber(s) because you just never know when the Evil Empire will attack. You need to be prepared.

When your 3 year old makes up his own Ewok language, be a fast learner. He will expect you to respond.

When you husband says, “Hey, wanna stay in Vegas and see a Cirque show?” go for it! Buy 10th row seats off a scalper!

Remember this: R2D2 makes everyone smile …especially if he is made out of legos!

When the exit for Zion National Park comes up, take it! Let the quiet sound of the river and the red rock bring you peace. It is such a peaceful place!

And my NUMBER ONE way to survive a failed adoption plan?

Tune in tomorrow. It needs a whole post.

And that is okay.

I am sitting in a packed up nursery rocking in the rocking chair I just refinished as I type this post …and you know what I feel?

Peace. Complete and total peace.

I haven’t thought or said one negative thing about C or her baby or her choice to parent and I never will …nor will I allow anyone else to. C’s baby was never “my baby” because she never placed her with us, but we loved her still and always will.

For the last 6+ months, C and her family have been part of R family and constantly been in our prayers. When we told her we loved her unconditionally, that’s exactly what we meant–without condition, as in not conditional upon placement.

I am excited for her to be a new mom and snuggle on her new chubby baby. I am excited for her terribly difficult pregnancy to come to an end and I pray and pray and pray everything goes smoothly. They deserve all the happiness in the world.

Don’t get me wrong, there were some hard moments last night when we found out. I walked into the newly set up nursery and got the wind literally knocked out of me. I was thankful for the tender mercy of knowing I had a sister-in-law to send five big boxes of gorgeous pink and ruffly baby clothes to. We needed a purpose. As Mr. R and I folded all those tiny clothes (and we have never folded clothing so quickly!) there were some tears as I repeatedly said, “This is so sad, isn’t it?” It is sad. So sad, in fact, that I had to go in and kiss my sleeping little boys for the courage to dismantle said nursery. Any loss of a dream is sad. But, this is the reality of adoption that we knew that going in.

Our boys know it too. In fact, we had given them the language months and months before.

“So boys, the baby’s ‘birthmom’ may decide that she isn’t supposed to be in our family …and that’s okay. We will be okay.”

“Yeah, we will be okay, Mom. Then Gavin will just be our baby.”

“NO! I not a baby. I a Big Boy.”

See? We will all be just fine. Why? Because of the LAW of Hope, the ability to bounce back, the gift of looking forward to a brighter tomorrow, a perfect brightness of hope. Again, it’s the perfect theme for our family this year.

Thanks to all for the love and concern during this awkward time. It’s awkward, right? The texts and phone calls from Tyson and Gavin’s birthmoms mean the most. This message from Gavin’s birthmom sunk deep into my soul:

 
Those ladies. Man, they bring us so much joy.

The show will go on and it will start with Disneyland. We leave in the morning. But, as my dad and I were morbidly joking we don’t think there will be a t-shirt for the boys that says, “They promised me a baby sister and all I got was a lousy trip to Disneyland.”

As Kim and Leish (my besties and business partners) and I say, “If we don’t laugh, we cry.”

Here’s to a brighter tomorrow …and a speedy, easy delivery for C and her beautiful new baby.

*Please know that one of C and my biggest concerns are hate mail. She received plenty of it over the last 6 months and doesn’t need any more. Please help us keep things positive for someone we love very much. A baby is a happy event and no one should make her feel badly about her choice to parent, just as no one should have made her feel badly about her choice to place when that was what she was choosing. It is her choice and we told her repeatedly that we would respect whatever that choice was. Thanks, everyone!

We love you, C.

(I totally stole this idea from my darling parents who’s most memorable family theme was/is “I Can Do Hard Things.”)

Our theme for 2011 was “Hold thy Peace” which to me meant “Hang in there and don’t freak out.” It was especially appropriate as Mr. R changed jobs, started a new company and C began emailing us, telling us she has chosen to place her baby with us. All major life changes that have brought us so much joy.

While doing some studying in the last few weeks, I came across this scripture:

Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life. ~2 Nephi 31:20

A perfect brightness of hope twinkled at me from the page.

Hope has been my favorite word since 2005 when we were having a hard time getting pregnant. Hope became the reason I could pull myself out of bed in the morning when we were diagnosed with infertility in 2006. Hope is what we clung to during the adoptions of our two oldest boys …and it is what we live by now as we embark on another adoption.

It’s a beautiful word.

A profound word.

A word of power.

Last Sunday I read a talk that is still lingering in my brain–A Perfect Brightness of Hope by Elaine L. Jack. It is so insightful. After I read it, I just knew that A Perfect Brightness of Hope would be our family theme for 2012.

Sister Jack defines hope as ”happy feelings, anticipation of good things, the best of the gospel, and zest for life.” I love it. I love her positivity. You can practically feel it jumping off the page!

She identifies hope as the power that keeps us from despair, the force that helps us rebound, an anchor to the soul, what “ties us to safety,” the beacon that shines in the chaos of this life—”warm, steady, and inviting.”

There was a story that Sister Jack told about a woman whose brief marriage fell apart when she discovered the man she married had lied to her. As I read about this woman, I was comforted by the following paragraphs and touched by how closely they relate to dealing with infertility, the loss of a loved one, the loss of a dream, disappointment, failed adoptions, and other of life’s tragedies. I know you can relate to these powerful paragraphs.

She was devastated. She despaired. She wondered if her whole heart had been crushed irreparably, along with her girlhood dreams. The world was black, and everything went poorly for many months.

But a remarkable thing happened. She was still very much alive; she just didn’t know it for a time. During this period of intense difficulty, I watched the law of hope take its course. My friend desired righteousness even while she struggled with choices, questions, and personal pain. Her hopeful desire, often unexpressed during those many months, worked in her. In her fertile soul, dormant seeds of hope, which she had forgotten she’d planted, began to sprout. Then they began to grow. She felt them and, as she was able, nurtured those volunteer tendrils.

It wasn’t easy, but hope, faith, and charity are powerful. Once growing, they are not easily dissuaded if the soil is right. Those tendrils strengthened. Ever so gradually her anger, disappointment, pain, and even despair were replaced by fresh, fragrant plants of compassion, understanding, patience, faith, hope, and charity.

The LAW of hope? When I read that, it was like the clouds parted and the Hallelujah chorus sounded in my ears. It just made so much sense. Hope is the power to rebound. Hope is the power to plow through any of the darkness that shines on our path of life. Hope is the reason to rejoice. As Sister Jack says, “Hope matters; your hope matters. Hope—what it does to my soul when I feel it! Hope—what it does for the world when we act on it!” Amen.

Daily confirm your hope. Some of you may be troubled by the injustices of the world. You may wonder why so many undeserving people live in abundance while so many innocents suffer. Some of you are the innocents. You bear emotional scars because of the abuse of others. For some, perhaps the source of your concern is your perception of how the Church is run. Still others of you carry a personal problem that weighs on your soul even as you sleep. May I gently speak to your hearts—don’t defer hope even when you feel most hopeless. Confirm your hope every way you can.

These are the words we will live by in 2012. Every day we will strive to confirm our hope.

2012 theme: A Perfect Brightness of Hope

When I was searching for Christmas activities to do as a family during the month of December, I was thrilled to see that The Grand was having a scavenger hunt around the hotel based on the children’s book, Maurice on Holiday. The hotel has 18 beautiful displays placed around the lobby level of the hotel wherein the children have to find a star with Maurice in each illustration.

When you locate the star in the giant illustration from the book, you then have to match it up with a code on the clue card. Some of these were really hard! Loved it.

This is the 400 lbs of gingerbread (the cupola) where Maurice lives. I think the kids appreciated it more having just made a gingerbread house of their own. It smelled delicious.

When you complete the hunt, you take the card to JouJou (the hotel’s cool toy shop) where they give you a sticker …and you check out their cool displays!

Then you take the sticker to La Bonne Vie where the kids get a special star cookie …and you pick up one of their incredible treats for yourself!

This was another low-key activity for the kids …and in one of my all-time favorite places. The Christmas trees they have displayed right now are beautiful.

The hallways are wide and it was not crowded at all so the kids could run around and tire themselves out.

We had a blast and did our usual drive to the Salt Lake Central Trax Station and park there. (Always plenty of parking.) Then, we rode the train in the “free zone” to the Court House stop and crossed the street to The Grand America. Easy and super fun for your train-crazy kids.

Review

Cost: Free!

Parking: Easy–remember we parked at the Trax Station.

Weather: Fantastic! Mr. R wore short sleeves without a coat!

Reason for the Season: Nope.

Christmas Magic:  Fun get out of the house and make some memories activity. The story was cute and the illustrations were great. The treat was delish. I hope The Grand does something like this every year! We will be back.

Sometimes you stay up until 4am with your sister-in-law watching Alias re-runs and making an entire gingerbread village complete with railroad and ice skating rink on the island in your mother’s kitchen before it gets demolished during The Great Kitchen Make-over of 2006 and 2007.

And sometimes you just allow your toddlers to help you.

We used all our left-over Halloween candy (apparently Gavin and my mother are the only people on this planet that enjoy candy corn) on this bad boy and only things in the pantry as the decorations. Other than the gingerbread kit that I got about a month ago using my 40% off coupon at Michael’s, I didn’t buy anything extra for the house …with one exception: THE PEPPERIDGE FARM GINGER FAMILY COOKIES. Thanks to Kim, they are my favorite holiday cookie. You must try them. Do it now before they are no longer on the shelves. We used 3 cookies on the house …and I ate the rest.

SERIOUS DISCUSSION TIME.

I hate to bring up such a super serious discussion during this holiday season, but there is a great debate happening at The R House regarding gingerbread house construction.

My mom (the genius above) hot glues the actual gingerbread pieces together so that they won’t fall apart while decorating. Mr. R is a purist and believes everything should be done with royal frosting …which is why ours fell apart twice and the walls look the way they look. (Hysterical, btw!)

My feeling is that no one really eats the actual gingerbread–heck, no one has even picked at the candy on the house–so why use royal frosting when hot glue will save you time and possible frustration?

Let’s discuss.

Are you a Royal Frosting Purist or are you joining The Hot Glue Revolution?