I should clarify... I mean the gingerbread house is ready for Christmas! Our real house is NOT ready for Christmas. It needs some serious TLC... there are some gifts that aren't wrapped yet... we have one more party to go to... {BIG SIGH}... I am giving myself an anxiety attack by just thinking of my to-do list. But at least the gingerbread house is DONE!!
We make it from a kit, so one would think it would be easy-NOT. The frosting is always so difficult to work with and there is the inevitable bickering between my two children as we spend several couple hours getting it assembled. I wasn't really looking forward to doing the house this year, but the girls would not let this tradition go.
The treat this year was that Grandma Rose got to help us put it together! My parents stopped by on their way back from their 7-day Caribbean cruise. Having mom with us calmed down the usual bickering about who-gets-to-add-X to the house. Plus, Grandma Rose had some very clever ideas which saved the day... microwaving the frosting when it was too difficult to squeeze totally saved my hands!
Over the years, we have gotten a little more creative with the decorating of the house. Initially, Abby would insist that it had to be decorated EXACTLY like the box. Talk about impossible - I can never get the frosting to cooperate! Now to inspire more creativity, I try to pick up additional candies to go with the kit. I am happy to say that we branched out a little more this year and included some new features. {Or as my friend Kathy would say, "We got out of our Strawberry jam."}
New this year... decorated candy-cane tree.,, which almost was a disaster when Abby discovered after she decorated it that it wouldn't fit on the cake plate next to the house. Steve saved the day and quickly grabbed a glass mug and inverted it. It became the perfect pedestal for the beautiful tree and avoided an Abby-meltdown.
Another new feature... a snowman on a toboggan (Steve's invention) was created with some candy canes, marshmallows & a graham cracker. The girls were so clever figuring out how to make a nose by trimming a gumdrop and adding pretzel arms and mini-chocolate chip buttons.
There was a big argument about what side was the front-door and what was the back-door, but eventually we decided that the imaginary "people" could use whatever door they wanted. Isn't it amazing what can cause arguments? {This reminds me of our dear friend, Denise, and the discussions about what is the front of the cabin and the back of the cabin...}
All in all, it ended up being a very fun family tradition... even if I initially felt Grinch-ey about it.
So which door would you use as the front door... the door flanked by the candy canes?
Or the door flanked by the gingerbread tree and snowman?
One gingerbread house kit + extra candies & colored frosting + two demanding decorators = a beautiful confectionery creation and a headache for the mom.
We have been decorating a gingerbread house during the Christmas holiday for the past 5 or 6 years. And I am finally catching on to why Steve always flees the house whenever this particular project gets underway.
I really do like making the gingerbread house but the nit-picking arguments between the decorators wear me down like sandpaper. On the bright-side, projects like this reaffirms my choice to stay away from Elementary Education as a career.
I like to supplement the gingerbread kit by picking up additional candies to broaden the decorating choices.
A couple of my "extras" turned out to be very bad ideas. The can of red frosting with 4 different tips looked like a perfect add-on, but in reality the red frosting was incredibly difficult to manage. It would mostly just spray out like an uncontrolled geyser and look like a bloody mess when it landed. The frosting gel writers weren't much better. Although they did squeeze out easier, unfortunately it wasn't thick enough to stay put and eventually slid off the gingerbread. Both of these issues raised havoc with the decorators.
See how the gel frosting outlining the window has slid and drooped a bit? I think it adds to the charm, but that is not how the decorator saw it.
The gingerbread house was evenly divided between the two decorators. They each got two sides and were in full control of ordering me to dispense frosting as needed.
This is the artistic results of the side assigned to the oldest decorator (her name rhymes with Crabby).
And here is the side assigned to the youngest decorator, whose nick-name rhymes with "Lippy".
