It's Beginning to Look a lot Like...

Gingerbread Houses!

So a couple of years ago we started this little tradition of making a gingerbread house during the Thanksgiving Holiday. I love how the house smells so yummy after baking gingerbread! Two years ago, we had family in town and so I just made enough cut outs for two...one for each family. Last year we were out of town and didn't get to make one...and the kids let me know this year that they didn't want to miss out on it again, so I promised them that we'd do it.

Well, Andy and I got this grand idea that we'd let each of the kids make their own...but the thought of making enough gingerbread house cutouts for four kids just made me want to crawl under my covers...so I used my "Merry Moolah" coupons and bought the premade, ready to put together kits from JoAnns. Brilliant. That's all there is too it. Except...the house didn't fill up with the aroma of fresh gingerbread.

So, Thursday night we got started. I mixed up the frosting (yes, this comes included in the box) and we helped them glue their houses together.

We were so amazed that their walls were straight, and the roofs were actually on the top of the houses.

We let them sit overnight to make sure that they were solid.

Then the next morning, we started decorating them.

The kids loved that they each had their very own bowl of candy (yes, included in kit) and I mixed up all of the frosting, made different colors, and then they just kept passing the frosting tubes around.

Taylor was very meticulous about where he put each piece of candy.

It was so fun to watch them create their very own designs. Brooklynn only wanted candy on one side of her roof because she wanted room for Santa to land on the other side. You know, you have to think about those things.

I kept having to remind Rachey to put the candy ON her house...she just wanted to eat it. And I think she used the whole bottle of green sprinkles...she wanted to have grass on her snow.

And Andy and I started cracking up when Brooklynn decided to use yellow sprinkles on her snow, just in one spot. It was in the back of her house...so we thought maybe that's where the reindeer took a short break before flying onward. Watch out for yellow snow!

Matthew even got in on the action. He was like Rachel, and couldn't figure out why Mommy wanted him to put the candy on the house...he just wanted to eat it.

Here's Brooklynn with her finished product!

Matthew sort of lost interest after a while...so I finished his for him. I hope he doesn't mind the pink. I could have kept going for hours...but just stopped when the kids were done. Weird, but it's really relaxing to goop a bunch of frosting onto a piece of hard cookie dough and then stick candy in it. Sort of therapeutic. Here's Rachey with her finished house. Hers was the most colorful, and I really liked it. Notice her pile of unused candy to the side. Yes, I finally gave up...I mean, she's just going to nibble it off the house anyway, right?

And here's Taylor. He even made some icycles on the roof. He really got into this project, and so far hasn't eaten any candy off of his. Christmas morning, his will most likely be the only one still in tact without any candy missing. In fact, I'll probably have to start asking him if he would like to munch off of his house. Funny how the kids are so different.

This is definitely a tradition that we are going to keep. It's so messy and time consuming, but it's also worth every minute of it. I think that next year I might just have to make them again instead of buying the kits though...because I really missed that smell of gingerbread. And to all you candle people out there, NO, it's not the same as a good scented candle!

Happy 1st of December!!!