Gingerbread Building

It has been nine years since we built our last gingerbread house and M thought this was the year to try again. Our last house looked like this.

This year we went a little smaller and only spent a week on our design instead of the several weeks we spent years ago before we had children. We made two small houses for the girls to each decorate and one for us to decorate. I had good intentions of helping out a lot but I was kept busy making cookies and dill bread for friends, shopping for gifts, and wrapping said gifts. I did help out some and I will point out what I made when we get there.

Here are the girls gingerbread houses, made from real gingers:)

Our youngest decorating her house.

Our oldest decorating her house and sneaking some icing.

M found a great gingerbread recipe years ago that we like to use. He mixes up the dough and rolls it out then lays down a pattern for the walls and roof. He cuts out places for windows and doors. In place of the windows he puts crushed up jolly ranchers and bakes the dough. The jolly ranchers melt and then solidify after removed from the oven giving them a stained glass look.

Here is a picture of the house completed and M adding some special features. I made the green gazebo out of icing using a balloon. After it dried we popped the balloon and then M affixed it to the candy canes for posts. After considering different materials, we decided on rock candy for the pathway from the door to the gazebo and for the flooring inside the gazebo. He also used Hershey's chocolate to make little benches.

M had the great idea of making a truck and having it spin out in the "snow". He drew up a design at work and cut out the model at home. It turned out pretty cool.

Here are a few different views of the house. We added lots of details and I love how great it turned out!

Close up of the tire tracks and snow people.

Tree on the side of house and decorated Christmas tree.

Vines for some hominess.

The roof tiles.

Close up of the lights coming from inside and the icicles.

Areal view.

Side view. This turned out so pretty.

Front view.

We entered our house in a contest at church and walked away with first prize. Everyone loved how the house looked and especially thought the flashing lights were great!

L's side view.

L's front view.

K's side view.

K's front view.

While at the 3rd Ward Christmas dinner, which was scrumptious, we stopped to visit with Santa Claus in one of the rooms. The girls told him what they wanted for Christmas. We also got to sing carols and visit with many of our old friends. We had a super fun night!

L told Santa she wanted a puppy for Christmas.

K told Santa she wanted a remote control fire breathing dragon that could grasp things with it's claws. She also wanted the remote to have a video on it so she could see where the dragon went when it was out of sight. She even drew a picture of it for him.

The girls and M had a lot of fun building these houses but they had even more fun disposing of them. Stay tuned for the next post in this series.