Gingerbread Houses

We made gingerbread houses again this year.  This is a fun tradition, but it can be a lot of work.  I usually make the house pieces a day or two ahead of time and collect the candy over time.  Many years I remember doing this while Scott is either sick or out of town which makes it seem even harder.  This year on the day I was gearing up to assemble the gingerbread houses Scott was taken down with a migraine.  Poor Scott.  So the kids and I worked on these while Scott rested.  I made the first batch of royal icing and assembled all the houses (structural assembly) and then started the decorating with the two youngest while the older kids finished up their activities.  Here are John and Emma decorating.

I was surprised that Emma liked the gingerbread cookies so much.  She is a picky eater and refuses to eat things as mild as plain pasta or white rice.  But she loved the gingerbread cookies we made.  We made lots of little gingerbread people with the extra dough.  Emma ate a bunch of them, even with no frosting.  I like gingerbread too, but its not for everyone.  Here's Emma working on her house some more.

John making good decorating progress

After helping the younger two kids and running out of the first batch of royal icing I thought maybe we should be done for the day and I could work with older three kids the next day.  Grant talked me in to making more icing.  He didn't want to wait.  I whipped up more frosting, per his earnest request, and the older three kids worked on their houses. Matthew said he is still interested in decorating a gingerbread house, in spite of being almost 14.  His school even had a gingerbread house decorating contest in which you can take pictures of your house at home.  I don't think the middle schoolers participated in their school contest, but I'm glad the older kids still had fun with this.

Our finished houses.  It seemed that many of us did a rush job this year.  I'm considering making smaller ones next year.  Less dough to make, and you probably get just as much fun out of decorating something a little smaller.   We will see.