There's a tradition in my family, on my mom's side at least, that when we get together to celebrate Thanksgiving, we decorate gingerbread houses. My grandmother made them for me, my brother, and my other 8 cousins--a labor of love for certain. Now that we're basically all adults, the guys don't bother with it (of course), but the girls still have fun with it. A couple of my cousins brought a bunch of extra candy they picked up for really cheap at the dollar store this year, which made for some fun building materials. So I thought I'd show off some things, at least as far as the camera on my phone would let me.
So this was my rather ambitious project this year--Gingerbreaduseld!! (Otherwise known as
Meduseld, as seen in
The Two Towers. Yes, I am a hopeless Tolkien geek and proud of it.) I can't take credit for Eowyn, though--that was entirely my sister-in-law's idea/creation. Complete with candy cane sword, which Julia was very proud of because she managed to get the sword to a) stay on and b) be pointy.
Speaking of Julia, she decided to go the fantasy geek route with me and did a Hogwarts House. Specifically, Gryffindor.
My cousin Katie decided to turn her house into Noah's Ark. My brother actually helped with this one....namely by sorting through the animal crackers to help her find pairs. And eating the extras. But still, that's the most participation he's done since the infamous "Gummy penguin frat house of horror" that he did when we were teenagers (and which we still talk about.)
Aside from my graham cracker additions, Katie's sister Lauren was the most architecturally ambitious of us. She managed somehow to cut windows in the roof without making it collapse, which I don't think I would have been able to do. What can I say, I'm clumsy. (I also thought her cookie log stack was a cute touch.)
Stephanie always seems to think she doesn't do a very good job with this, but I thought her Oreo roof was really fun!
Her new sister-in-law, Kate, did an Oreo roof too. But completely differently. And the little blue house was cute!
So yeah...it's fun to see all the variations that you can get from the same building materials. And the creativity in other people in my family!
Speaking of creativity, back to my one-woman sweatshop. I'm sewing on a deadline!
Speaking of Julia, she decided to go the fantasy geek route with me and did a Hogwarts House. Specifically, Gryffindor.
What a great tradition, and such a cute collection of houses. My fav is the Tolkien house.
ReplyDeleteWhat FANTASTIC family fun! Such wonderful creations! Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteMe, my sister and my sister-in-law, along with the kids, usually decorate a gingerbread house on Christmas Day. Think we've done it 3 or 4 years in a row now. Looking forward to it this time around too! Especially after seeing this!
This is a better tradition than our common cutting out of cookies!
ReplyDeleteBut I guess we're too practical for this kind of thing. We wouldn't want to eat the gingebread houses, and if we cannot eat it... :D
Gingerbreaduseld is perfect. Especially funny because I always saw "med" (Czech for honey) in the name - and there's honey in gingerbread, at least the Czech variation!