Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Gingerbread Mania

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".

3 comments:

the mom~ said...

OMGosh,I'm dying of laughter here. You tell a great story!!! The house looks PERFECT, just like the box does...ours was a disaster :(

Charlene said...

hahahaha....that is why I walk the other way whenever we see gingerbread house kits. Roger and I can't get the house to stay together before we are frustrated and tell the kids to eat the candy and go watch a movie.

Lori said...

hahhahhahaha Crabby and Lippy.....you kill me. I love that you do this form of torture every year. We tried it once...same result grouchy kids. I never did it again. Good for you!!