Gingerbread house 2011

Here is our traditional yearly gingerbread house.  As usual the kids did most of the decorating and I figured out the assembly.  It was almost 20"x20"x20".  The largest we ever made.  It was supposed to be Santa's workshop with attached barn (age 15's idea).  I didn't get very good pictures of the whole thing after it was all done. 

These two little ones were some I made for some ladies in the neighborhood and the snowman was a do ahead for age 8's birthday cake while I had the royal frosting out, he wanted a snowman on it.  Front and back views.

Gingerbread Tradition

One of may favorite traditions in our family is the annual Gingerbread house. Every year we do something a little different. This year we made a Gingerbread Barn.   Everyone gets to decorate a different side so it looks a little off balance but it's all for fun.  The kids main goal is to get as much candy on as they can.  That seems to be Dad's goal too, now that I think about it.   Mom's main job is designing, and baking.  That is a lot of gingerbread people.  Since I can only fit one side at a time on the pan it takes a good part of the day to roll it all out and bake. 

Here is the barn before it got decorated.  I always seem to forget which goes outside, the front or sides, so this time I got it wrong so to fix it the corners got a little extra frosting.

Mom's side is always a bit minimalistic.  If you look close you can see the animals inside.

Cow in the headlights!

Age 13 did the roofs.

Age 9's side.

Dad and age 5.11.5 worked together this year.







They also worked together on the back.  Although I suggested the Bremen Town Musicians.  Kid's don't know that story anymore though, even mine, I haven't seen a book with it anywhere.

The kids (including dad) can't wait until Christmas day when I allow them to dig in.  I'm sure a few pieces will disappear between now and then though.