The Gingerbread House of 2014

For some reason (which I now know what that is), we don't usually put together gingerbread houses as part of our annual Christmas traditions.  We have so many other things that we do instead, and the kids have never really asked me to do one with them.

After Christmas this year, while I was pushing my gigantic shopping cart, with all three kids on it, through the store, I saw that the gingerbread house kits were on clearance.  Steve was out of town traveling and I thought that it would make a good (and now cheap!) activity to do together.  Especially on a snow day.

The girls were filled with so much excitement over the whole idea and could hardly wait for me to put all of the groceries away.  After lunch, I promised them that we could put it together ... not realizing that it was ME that really needed to put the foundation together first.  Then, they could go all out with the candy decorations. 

Here's the thing:  I am not an engineer.  That's why I married one.  I am crafty and can pull together projects from various odds and ends, but when it comes to building something rather structural ... well, it's not my strong suit.

So, when Jack dropped the box on the floor and broke off a chunk of the roof, I could see that this was not going to be an easy task. 

The frosting was not holding anything together and the plastic tray that was provided did not keep the house within its barriers.  At all.

So what did this momma do?  Well, I grabbed my overused glue gun and declared to the girls that we would be doing something a little different.  Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a look that the girls exchanged.  They know that I practically own stock in the glue stick company.  I mean, I use hot glue for everything.

Well, for the first time that I can ever remember, hot glue did not work.  You see, the gingerbread was greasy and the glue just peeled right up.  But I was determined to make this work.  After all, I had two little girls counting on me.

So, I fashioned my own set-up and somehow made it work.  And when the roof started to separate at the top, we stuffed cotton balls in the giant canyon ("look girls, it looks just like snow!").  They didn't know any different.  Instead, all they have are the memories of working together to create a special masterpiece all of their own.

As for me, I will not be putting together any gingerbread houses in the future ... unless my resident engineer is here.

While I was desperately trying to adhere four sides of the gingerbread house together (and mumbling under my breath), I assigned the girls the task of putting the various types of candy into bowls to make it easier to work with them.  (Sam loves to wear her dress-up glasses as often as she can).

Jack heard the sound of candy pouring into bowls and came running:

Can you just sense the excitement?!

At long last, the girls were ready to start decorating:

You will notice that Jack's role in all of this was to sneak and sample the different kinds of candy, as evidenced by his full chipmunk cheeks in the background:

They worked so well as a team:

The masterpiece: