Advent: Gingerbread House

I should have read the instructions before I even got the children involved.

I totally forgot that it takes almost 3 hours to construct a pre-baked gingerbread house before you can decorate it with candy.

Ugh.

That made for a long morning as they sat expectantly unwrapping Tootsie Rolls as I tried to explain that we had to glue the house together first. Then, as we waited for it to dry, they wouldn't go play; they wanted to keep the house "company."

But all things considered they were marvelously patient which paid off in the end because they loved decorating the house. Each took a side--a roof panel, a wall, and a part of the yard--and decorated it with the gum drops and such provided plus leftover Tootsie Rolls in various colors, Dots, and M&Ms from my birthday pinata. Oh, and a ton of rainbow sprinkles.

My job was to pipe on the snow, icicles, doors, windows, and other curlicue decorations, all while they continued to add candy to the rooftop and "garden."

We made one fine looking house.

Even if the kit was a year old, purchased to decorate last year and forgotten. No problem.

Which is why I'm going to buy two kits at the after-Christmas sale this year to be ready for next year. Buy yours too--you can come over to my house and we'll have a decorating party.

(Finally, my apologies to Gommie: I know we were going to do this when you were here but I ran out of ideas this morning and was desperate).