We decided to carry on my family's tradition and make gingerbread houses this year.
On Christmas Eve we had some friends over, baked some gingerbread and started building!
I doubled the batch (which said made one house online) and it made 7 full houses!
I think Spencer consumed more sugar in that one night than he has in his whole life.
Seriously.
Seriously.
Gordon's work of art. Nice face, huh?
None of us could get our roofs to stay up, nor could we get the frosting to cooperate. So, the fact that Kevin's house was perfect and clean and the roof stayed up ... we were all a little upset. He, of course, chalked it all up to pure skill. ha.
Marali's house ... well, it didn't make it.
My house.
The gummy bear people on the sidewalk somehow shortly after disappeared.
I'm thinking it might have something to do with this cute little man in his NEW Christmas eve jammies that Daddy picked out. They were SUCH a good choice. Spence loves Elmo and these jammies have Elmo ALL over them. He woke up the next morning, pointed to his tummy and said, "Elmo shirt!" He keeps digging them out of his hamper to try and put them on day after day. Maybe we can get another pair on after Christmas clearance. :)
Spencer's initial reaction to the gifts under the tree. He's not too thrilled, but just wait.
This is what he does when we tell him to say "cheese". He's hilarious. His favorite gift was this $1 box of straws from Target. He loves straws. Silly kid.
Thanks Mike and Anne for the Toy Story lamp! He loves Buzz and Woody.
Thanks, Grandpa and Grandma Dix for the percussion table!
Mommy especially thinks it's awesome.
(Train him young!)
One of Daddy's presents was a new, firm pillow that he's been wanting. I knew if I wrapped it, he'd know exactly what it was and we didn't have a huge box, so it was hiding in the closet - just waiting for him.
One happy family.
Merry Christmas everyone!
4 comments:
I will let you in on a couple of gingerbread house secrets. (30+ years experience!)
In order for your roofs to stay on your house, you need to pin them on to the front and back pieces. I use the straight pins that have the little balls on them. So looking at one side of your roof, there will be 2 pins on the right side and 2 pins on the left side. Call me if you don't understand.
I also use pins to attach the front and back pieces to the side pieces.
It's best to use Royal Icing (Cement frosting) when putting these together. (4 Cups powdered sugar, 3 Tbl meringue powder, 6 Tbl water. Beat for 7 min. - no less) This will harden like cement. If there is any grease in the frosting, bowl, or utensils, it will never harden.
Once the frosting has hardened, you can pull the pins out if you wish.
Feel free to contact me - I'm pretty good at troubleshooting gingerbread. I am known around here as the "gingerbread queen!"
Thank you, thank you! I love the straight pin idea. I used a recipe for Royal Icing, but there must have been some grease somewhere because it did NOT harden up ... well it did eventually, but only after it had been sitting on our houses for at least a half hour. Our venture next year will be MUCH more successful now. Thanks!
Looks like so much fun putting together the houses. Your family is so cute and you look so happy!
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