Friday, December 21, 2007

Adventures with Gingerbread

Well, it is now officially less than three days until Christmas Eve and less than four days until Christmas Day. We're here...ready or not! I, personally, can't wait! I've got a pile of presents under the tree to shake; all my gifts have been bought; now I just have the anticipation!

Before Christmas is finally here, though, I have several fun activities planned for this weekend that I am very excited about it! I have not one, but...count them!...two activities planned with groups of girlfriends. Tonight, a group of six of us are going out for dinner and margaritas; tomorrow, my very best friend (we've known each other since we were both 14!) and another great friend from high school are going out to lunch. In the midst of these fun times, I also have.... my baking to do, some movies to watch (watching "It's a Wonderful Life" is a tradition), and two mini albums to finish working on. It's all good!!

And now...I need to give you the story behind my post title for this evening.

Believe it or not, we have NEVER done a gingerbread house in our family. It's something I've wanted to do every year, but have never found the time for it. This year, I said, was the year! And last night was the night. We dug out the gingerbread kit, divided up all the candies, put frosting into a decorating bag, and then let the girls go hog wild!

We started out slow...

Then Delaney and Sydney began decorating in earnest (McKenna did two rows of gumdrops and had just about had her fill! lol)...

At the end of the decorating session--even after the two sides of the roof collapsed a couple of times, sprinkles erupted all over the floor, and the girls fought over the last peppermint discs--we were all covered with frosting, but very pleased with our end-result...


But then the question arose...

Do we spend all this time on a gingerbread house, only to let it sit on a table and be admired by passers-by? Is there some sort of Gingerbread Rule, by which some great gingerbread governing body says that we can only sit and look at all that yummy frosting and candy?

We promptly decided that we had pictures of our creation, after all...there was no real reason to keep the house around. We have plenty of other, non-edible decorations in the house already. So...

we took it apart and ate it. And, let me just tell you, a gingerbread house tastes as good as it looks!

(And now, one other little point before I leave you for the weekend... Please say a prayer for my computer! I'm sitting here on Gary's computer to do this post. This afternoon, my laptop died and it absolutely will not come back up again. Gary's gonna see if he can figure out the problem, but I'm very worried that I've lost everything on it. It's got a ton of pictures, articles, writing projects...just a whole lot of stuff that just about makes me cry to think about losing. So, please cross your fingers that Gary can work his computer magic and make it work again!)

I hope all of you have a WONDERFUL weekend-before-Christmas!! I will pop back in here Monday, when it will be CHRISTMAS EVE!!
(And remember to leave comments. I will draw a name from all the comments...from yesterday's post through Tuesday night...and give a RAK to someone!)







18 comments:

camport said...

what a great Gingerbread house! Ours sat on the counter, un-eaten until I finally threw it away. I'm pretty sure ours wouldn't have tasted as good as it looked!

:)

NY KAT said...

I've always wanted to do a gingerbread house too! It would be fun to have a gingerbread decorating party/contest!

Unknown said...

YUM!!!!!

Happy Christmas Cheryl, hope you all have a super time :)

Anonymous said...

Don't hate me because I'm anonymous! I would still love to receive a RAK! Love your blog and read it all the time...it makes me smile :D Would love to see pics of your best girlfriend since 14! I'm still best friends with my childhood girlfriend and I just sent her a scrapbook of our childhood together and our more recent pictures, too, for her December birthday and she called me in tears! What a great hobby we have which brings so much joy to the ones we love! Loved the idea of eating the gingerbread house (after taking photos, of course)! Happiness in 2008, Cathy

Unknown said...

hey cheryl...my kids decorated the same gingerbread house here...they had so much fun and even dragged dad into the decorating!!

looks like yours had a a blast!!!

i am late with this recipe for you...but here is the oreo cookie recipe...

3pkgs devil's food cake mix
6 eggs
1 cup of oil

mix all the ingredients together...it will be a STIFF dough

drop by teaspoonfuls onto a cookie sheet

bake at 350 for 8 minutes

cool completely on wire rack

using cream cheese icing (homemade or store bought, homemade is better, LOL!!) spread icing onto one cookie and top off with another one to create a sandwich.

enjoy...see told you super easy!!! and totally kid friendly...my kids love making the sandwiches!!!

hope you have a warm and happy holiday filled with lots of love, family, and friends!!

~Kammie~ said...

*LOL*....I always wondered what the point of creating the GB house was then not to eat it--like you said "what is the rule????" Glad to know that someone else thinks the same way I do--I would have eaten too!

I, too, just spent another wonderful lunch with my BFF from 8th grade! That's a lot of years together! AND Now she has sucked me into the "scrap" world. BTW, you have been one of my inspirations as well as Adrienne.

Happy Holidays!

Kammie, The Candle Girl, The Nail Girl, and now The Scrap Girl

http://kreativekornerbykammie.blogspot.com
http://nailsbykammie.tripod.com
http://candlegirl2007blogspot.com

Mandy said...

Your gingerbread house turned out great. Sydney really looks like she is having fun!

My sister and I made a gingerbread house a few years ago for the first time. Like you, it had always been on my list of things to do but I had never gotten around to it. It turned out pretty cute (we had a lake made out of sugar that I dyed with food coloring) but I have not repeated the experience since, LOL!

Hope you have a fun weekend!

Dawn Bibbs said...

Yet another fun tradition...show off!! :-)

I think this is something Jayla would like to do. I used to be a cake decorator, and I still have all the icing tips and bags. So maybe next year, we'll have to make Gingerbread houses too. My friend actually makes them with graham crackers.

Yours came out really cute...and it looks so tasty!!! Thanks for sharing.

Sheila said...

What a delicious looking Gingerbread House and everyone looks like they had a lovely time.

Danielle said...

LOVE your gingerbread house!!! It looks fantastic :)

You know what?!?! My kiddos told me the same thing..."why can't we eat it now...if we let it sit and let people look at it ~it'll be yucky and all full of dust before we can eat it!"

I think it's a great idea to eat them afterwards hehehehe :) YUMMY!!!!!

Merry Christmas to you and your family Cheryl!!!!

Anonymous said...

i was always wondering what to do with those lovely creations!! never made a real one myself. I might try a sugar cookie house next year...then eat it!!

Merry Christmas Cheryl!!!

Unknown said...

Hi Ceryl - I have recently discovered the art to gingerbread houses etc., having watched THROWDOWN WITH BOBBY FLAY a couple of days ago on Food Network. He competed against this woman who is apparently the best in the USA - my goodness her work is AMAZING! Search for it on the FOOD NETWORK site and try watch a replay of it if you didn't see it - I know your creative talents will enjoy it.
Also wanted to wish you and your family and all your loved ones a very happy Christmas. May all your dreams and aspirations come true in 2008! I value your friendship and hope we can have a scrapbooking/baking marathon get together of our blogging circle one day - who knows - we might even be able to make it happen. Thanks for the time you have put into building our friendship. xox

Anonymous said...

Did you buy the boxed kit or did you make it from scratch? I've considered this too but I'm more worried about the mess! I know, I'm a horrible mother aren't I?

Looks like you girls had a wonderful time and I'll bet it tasted lovely.

Merry Christmas to you and yours!

Kimberly said...

The gingerbread house looks great. Wish I had the energy or time to do that. Merry Christmas!

Anonymous said...

Oh no! I too am having computer problems and I'm not at all happy about it! I hope for the best for you!

Merry Christmas my internet friend!

Jacquie

Jacquie said...

I made a gingerbread house one year, my sister and her friend bugged and bugged to eat it. I said after Christmas. They took me up on my word, pigged out on it and that was that LOL.

Jeff said...

We are working on the same house here. We started in last night and are letting in dry a bit before finishing it off today. I'll post pics once we're done... it's the first gingerbread house construction for us both, which is sort of shocking really!

Hope Gary is able to revive the computer!

Merry Christmas!

Theresa Tyree said...

Cheryl, these photos are great! Please be sure to share the wonderful layouts that come out of these photos!