Monday, December 22, 2008

Gingerbread Houses in the Mountains


I've always wanted to make gingerbread houses. Really make gingerbread houses- homemade dough, stained glass windows...the whole bit. Last year I made gingerbread houses with my young women- we used kits- not a single house held up.

I mentioned this to Dashing Boy's mom (Mrs. Muppet) a few weeks ago. You see, Dashing Boy grew up in the mountains in a little cabin nestled in trees. The front room of his house has huge open windows that never have curtains on them- it is the perfect place to get cozy with family and watch the snow fall- which is easy to do because it snows there nine months of the year. It's charming. It's picturesque. It's the perfect place to make gingerbread houses.

So anyway, I was talking to Mrs. Muppet about this. "That would be SO fun!" she said.

and it was.

Mrs. Muppet showed great skill in the stained glass window department. Check them out!


Dashing Boy and his sister Witty delicately cut shredded wheat squares in half for a thatched roof.

I love the nerds walkway,

the happy tree and Christmas lights,
and the jolly gumdrop people.

But the best part of the evening was when we were all finished with our creations. We seriously spent a good hour staring at our houses and admiring and complimenting the details of each others work. And then Dashing Boy's other sister Athena started an exciting monologue about what she will do next year...
"Next year, I'm going to build a HUGE, intricate house."
excitement building
"Next year, I'm going to use a wooden board for the base!"
and building
"Next year, we're going to have a competition- like on the Food Network- and we'll judge on all different categories-construction, technique, decoration!"
And then we joined her, each family member offering their own "next year..."
The night concluded with Athena excitedly shouting "NEXT YEAR IS GOING TO BE AWESOME!!!"


I'm just happy my house held up.

4 comments:

Natalie | Make Today Great said...

Those houses -- too cool.

the browns said...

wow, very nice. we tried to make a gingerbread house a couple of weeks ago... and ours really suck compared to yours. ha ha.

Brittany said...

I love those gingerbread houses... how is it possible that everyone in that family got all of the creative talent? If we tried to do that, they wouldn't stay up for a day. Anyway... so good to see you last night and thanks again for the yummy caramels... you are a master in the kitchen.

Cristie said...

These are darling! I love all the roofs, the little frosted trees, just everything!