The Gingerbread Dream House of 2009

For YEARS my mom and I have been creating gingerbread houses at Christmas time. We did it first for one of my nieces and loved it so much we started a tradition. For a few years we made our own gingerbread, cut out the pieces per the pattern and decorated it with our own homemade icing and store bought candies. Later, we started to use the kits that are so prevalent in the stores this time of year. Sometimes we had success...most of the time we did not. It seems that each year as we are building our gingerbread dream house, we aspire to how we can do it bigger and better next year. We have had grandiose ideas and visions of entering some gingerbread contest and taking home the blue ribbon. These ideas and vision have never really come to fruition, but we have had fun talking about it as we decorate the smaller, less grand version in front of us.

When my daughter came along, we finally had an even bigger and more fun reason to build the gingerbread house of wonders...the delight in seeing her little eyes light up was more enough to entice us to building the house each year. Except the past five years, although filled with love and all the patience we can muster, our gingerbread houses have just been catastrophes. The icing has been too thick, too thin, the sides have fallen in, roofs have caved, doors have fallen off and figurines have refused to stand up in the "yard." My daughter has delighted in the disasterous masterpieces, we have been disgusted!

This year however our gingerbread house turned out quite well. Not as good as some in years past, but definitely better than the last four we have created for my child. She was an actual help this year ( unlike last year, when she just commenced to eating the candies!) and even created a door for us when we were clueless as to how best it could be achieved.

Here are some pictures of the work in progress:

Okay...every masterpiece has to start out looking pitiful...I am pretty sure that is a direct quote from Leonardo DiVinci!

(those cans are the secret to a successful house...just sayin'!)

Two great engineers at work...

It is getting there...be patient!

And Viola'! Well worth the wait...here it is the Gingerbread Dream House of 2009!


And there is no better way to celebrate a successful house building than with some Kool-Aid and a Chocolate Snowman!
May your days be merry and bright!
Beverly