Gingerbread House 2013

I have such wonderful and vivid memories of making gingerbread houses at my grandmother's house during the holidays as a child. All the grandkids would gather in the kitchen and put together their own interpretation of a gingerbread house, although we used graham crackers and cake icing. I loved playing with all the different types of candy and being together, then finally parading our houses throughout the house so all the grownups could see our creations. It is a classic holiday memory for me and all the grandkids, which is why it was supposed to be such a fun idea for this tradition to continue with the Little Papoose!

 

My sister bought a kit for this year's experiment, and the best part about the whole thing was opening it up and smelling the wonderful gingerbread! It was divine! After that initial burst of excitement though, it pretty much went downhill. 

 

 

We managed to get all four walls up and together for the most part, even though the icing does not stick and hold like it was supposed to. I guess we could have stood there and held each seam together for five minutes until it dried before moving on, but who does that? We had an eager two year-old who was going to dive into the bowl of candy at any minute.

 

My sister and I were taking turns squeezing out the useless icing from the bag because our arms would get tired. We figured out the roof and hoped it would stick despite common sense, and we were able to at least get a picture of it before it crumbled down. I was beginning to spread the non-spreadable icing on the roof when it all came tumbling down, I felt like the big bad wolf destroying one of the little pig's house!

 

Luckily the Little Papoose wasn't at all interested in a well-built gingerbread house, she was quite content to sink her hand into the candy bowl and randomly place bits of brightly colored gumdrops and peppermints onto her collapsed roof. At first she decorated one half of the roof then proceeded to take off all the candy she'd just placed there so she could re-decorate just that one spot again. In the end, she was really only interested in the little snowman that came with the house, so all turned out well!

 

And clearly we like to be fancy when we make gingerbread houses, even if those stylish dress up clothes are over the pjs!