So mom was feeling really ambitious this year and decided it would be a great idea to make gingerbread houses - from scratch. Not just one, but 3. We divided up into three teams: Matthew and Alli, Mom and Dad and Jessica, and then Sarah, Jeni, and me. It seemed even and fair until we got going. Matthew is a pro landscaper, Mom and Dad are really talented and have experience making these things, but Sarah got stuck with me and Jeni - two elementary teachers. Yikes.
It took 1/2 the day to make the dough, cut out the houses, including the windows and doors, and then bake them. Luckily we have two ovens in Idaho or I think it would have taken us 2 days. The frosting was a mess. We made one kind and decided it wouldn't work, so we had to make another kind. We glued the houses together and filled the windows with sugar glaze. That was really messy and hard. Not sure we're going to do that again. But the windows sparkled when the sun shone through them. We had a few problems putting the houses together - there were some cracked walls and roofs, but it gave the houses character.
Dad was quite creative and cut up a box to keep their roof in one piece.
We were quite impressed with our efforts. And it entertained us for hours.
We were very proud of the duck pond at our house. Jeni is a genius. I personally liked the bench overlooking the pond.
Mom, Dad, and Jessica made a cute little house. I was surprised by how much Dad enjoyed this activity.
We all loved the woodpile, bench, chimney, and the pretty windows.
After all was said and done, Matthew and Alli were the winners of creating gingerbread houses. But I don't know what we were expecting. Matthew immediately started planning the landscaping around the house. He started with the pavers on the back porch and sidewalk. Then he added a water feature and other things.
I wish I had a better picture of the water feature. You can barely see it on the left side of the picture.
It was so much fun, we'll probably do it again next year. With a few changes of course.
2 comments:
Those are gorgeous and I'll bet the house smelled so yummy!
What a cool idea. Sounds like fun. Maybe we'll have to copy that when my siblings live in the Salt Lake Valley again (hopefully they will sometime again). They all turned out awesome! Much better than I could've done. P.s. Never seen your dad with a beard. He looks good with scruff. :)
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