Eat the House?!?

One of the things I have loved doing at Christmastime for quite a few years is building gingerbread houses! I make my own gingerbread, and cut out house pieces, which I then bake and trim and assemble into houses. I started with one, big house that we would take with us to Grandma's on Christmas day when the kids were little...gosh, I don't even know how long ago, but I'd say it's been around 12-13 years... 

That first year, I made lots of mistakes, and the gumdrops nearly caved in the roof of my first house, but we had so much fun! I remember the "Ooooh!"s and "Ahhhh!"s  that emanated from even the grumpiest of relatives when the sweet house was revealed, and these were rivaled only by the gasps of "Whaaaaat?" that accompanied my suggestion that the kids all grab kitchen utensils to break into the cookie masterpiece and devour it! ("Hold that butter knife upside down, and really smash into the roof!," I encouraged my nephew...my mother-in-law? Mortified!...too funny!)

Through the years, I've made big houses, smaller houses, teensy-weensy houses, and I've even made Gingerbread House Cookies to mail far away. 

I mailed gingerbread cookies to Mork in Afghanistan last Christmas!

It's so much fun, and so kid-friendly, that even Peanut helped with the decorating (and sampling of sweets) last year. :)

We used a lot of sugary breakfast cereal to decorate a
masterpiece to share with this sweet toddler.

For the past few gingerbread seasons, I have really found my groove. The buying and baking and building and beautifying is quite a process I've discussed at length in the other blog, and it's too much to do all in one day...so I take it one step at a time. One day to buy candy and decorations. One day for baking. One day to make candy windows and assemble the houses, and then a day (or 2!) for decorating! So far, for the 2012 Gingerbread Season, all I've managed to do is purchase the candy.

Hey! I've got candy! This is a GREAT start!

I promise to show you how it all turns out, but I'll probably need a couple of weekends to get it together. As I know you probably have holiday plans and/or projects of your own in the works, I am sure that you will understand. Thanks for that.

What are your plans and projects for the 2012 Holiday Season?