Gingerbread House

I had a German teacher in high school who used to make amazing gingerbread houses.  I’ve always wanted to make a really awesome one myself, so a few years ago, I started trying.  It was more difficult than it looked.  I tried cutting out the pieces before baking, but then they were all puffy and misshapen when they came out of the oven.  I struggled with frosting that didn’t stick, and a million other little issues.  Then, two years ago, I sucked up my pride and asked a woman at church to teach me her wise ways of gingerbread house making. 

That was two years ago, and with the flurry of PTA last December, I didn’t make a house at all.  This year, I started off a little timidly, worried how it would all turn out.

I used my own, old recipe for gingerbread, because by her own admission, the gingerbread the woman from church makes doesn’t taste very good.  And what’s the fun in that?!  But I was worried it wouldn’t work as well as a building material.  I’d never know if I didn’t try, so I determined to try.

Not only did the gingerbread turn out well (and little mice kept eating the edge pieces from where I cut out the house pieces, so you can bet it tasted good!) but also the stained glass windows worked better than I could have hoped. 

Part of my Christmas present from my parents this year was a board to put it on, with a hole cut out of the middle for a light bulb, so I could light up my gingerbread house.  (Yes, everyone looks at me like I’m crazy when I say that, but I must have gotten the idea from somewhere, and when you see the end result, you will have to admit, it’s pretty cool!)

The house went together fantastically!  No, really, the roof didn’t slide off, the walls didn’t fall down.  It stuck and held, and never did it shimmy or look like it might collapse.  It was a Christmas miracle!

And I was a good mom.

I resisted the urge to tell my children to keep their paws off.

I put them in charge of the decorating.

And while we did end up with the wall of tortured gummy bears, I do think it turned out VERY cute.

(Oh, and if you noticed the crooked chimney, that was totally MY fault.  I forgot, when I made the big, picture window, that the chimney ought to go down the back, and when I realized it, J had already lumped gummy bears on the side of the house, where it also could have gone.  Oh well.  Lesson learned.)

I am super pleased with how it turned out this year, and I hope this is the first of many years of this tradition.  And yes, the first time I make a house without children, and it’s perfect, and pretty, and neatly decorated, I will probably also be crying buckets of tears, missing my kids.  So really, my gingerbread house IS perfect, just the way it is, this year.