Sunday, December 30, 2007

Gingerbread Holidays

This is what our kitchen looked like Sunday before Christmas. And pretty much on Monday, too... and not much different on Christmas day. This year, the kids were way into baking, even more than last year, and Jules even made the pizzelles all by herself from start to finish. Em and Sam are working on our baking center—a part of the counter a few inches lower than the rest, making it easy to roll out dough with leverage and having the added advantage of being perfect kid height. Yes, Em decided to get in the baking spirit by dressing in her colonial attire. She does love to be in character.

This year, we added gingerbread houses to our repertoire, something we've been wanting to do for a couple of years, but never quite found the time. Once she heard this, our generous friend Madeline insisted we borrow her stoneware gingerbread mold since they would be away over the holidays. (We've considered holding it hostage to get them to visit in the spring, but that wouldn't be very nice, would it?) It took all day Christmas eve to bake enough pieces for three gingerbread houses. By evening, they were cool enough to begin to assemble.


We cut down some egg cartons to place in the middle of the house, giving us some structure to work against. Before dinner, we made some royal icing and glued the houses together, giving them plenty of time to dry before decorating. By the time we were done eating, everything was set to go. The kids had a blast, and we all decided that this was the perfect way to wile away Christmas eve—it gave us all something to focus on besides just the anticipation of Christmas morning!





Everyone had fun eating and decorating, and by the time we were done, Sam decided we should make a gingerbread house for every holiday occasion, already making plans for his Valentine's house.


Of course, the next day (note the sleep mask from Santa) the girls decided that their houses weren't quite done after all, and they spent another afternoon decorating, this time with colored royal icing for garland and windows.


The finished products from left to right: Julia's house, Em's house, and Sam's house. I'm looking forward to making a Halloween house next year—yet another wonderful idea of Madeline's.

8 comments:

Joanne said...

Hi Danielle...wishing you and your family a happy holiday season. :-)

Joanne said...

oops..hit send to quick...

Great houses! :-) I also LOVE the bonnet.

Livia said...

Hey Stranger! Those gingerbread houses are gorgeously amazing. Hope you and yours are having a great holiday! And Happy New Year!

Deanne said...

The houses are beautiful. I've been wanting to do one for a couple years now, too. I guess I don't have to wait for next Christmas, do I? A Valentine house sounds awesome!

Happy New Year to you and your family!

Maggie said...

Cool stuff! I love that Emily got dressed up. I hope you had a happy, healthy holiday. Hope to see you all soon.

Ren Allen said...

Awesome!
If you want structural integrity without the internal support, you can glue them together with melted sugar. It's a bit scary to use, like hot glue, but it works amazingly fast and well!
Just melt white sugar in a pan until it's liquid and brown, then dip edges of house in and hold them together. Very solid. :)

We haven't even made ours yet this year. The kids are a bit annoyed with me....
We're going to have New Year houses this time.:)

Jessica said...

These houses are beautiful! Gingerbread houses are not part of our traditions, but our library is having a Hansel and Gretle celebration and we are making them over President's Day week.
Love to everyone :)

Wendy said...

Those look fantastic. I just had to comment to let you know that I actually did make a Valentine's gingerbread house this year. I cut out a heart shaped window and melted jolly ranchers into it for stained glass. So fun, and sort of addicting. I even made gingerbread, stained glass cookies.

Can't wait to see the Halloween version. Sounds great.