Gingerbread Houses

I waited two days to snap these pictures for you viewing pleasure and found that I was almost too late. There has been some minor demolishion in the village.

A few years ago we discovered that instead of making complicated frosting to stand our graham crackers up together, we could use almond bark, which dried much faster, melts much easier, and held the seams tighter. You can also use it for snow and ice.

The first gingerbread house we attempted was a kit with real gingerbread and frosting in it. We bought two kits, since the kids were small, and build two houses, which we spend hours trying engineer the impossibility of their construction. Finally Dale took an iron fist and smashed them both to bits and then we had a good laugh and went out for dinner to decompress.

After that I made my own gingerbread, set up the houses the night before and the decorating was a breeze. In my fragile estate, I didn't have the energy or the will power to make the gingerbread, so we built these old faithfuls and had a great time.

Dale and I always have an unspoken competition between us, which he was sure he had won this year, until Kennedy flew through the kitchen and knocked his house, and only his house, onto the floor. It was still intact, but his little reindeer and yard ornaments were a knocked out of place. Poor guy. I saw Leila eating the door off of his house today, which technically is her house so she can eat it. But I wanted to post pictures before they are all nothing but crumbs.

I thought this picture of me and Leila was so cute, I had to post it. She's filthy, but the only time she's clean is in the bathtub.