12.24.2013

gingerbread houses. 2013

I've been making gingerbread houses with kindergartners for years.  It has always one of my favorite, most exhausting activities of the year.  So a few years ago, I decided to bring the fun home and make them with the boys!

I've never used the kits, because you just can't buy 25 of those for an entire classroom.  And I learned a long time ago, that they are easy to decorate if you just put them together with hot glue.  No one actually eats them anyways, right?

But this year was my first attempt at them in India.  We don't have boxes of graham crackers or even a similar shaped cookie to work with.  So I thought, "how hard can it be?"  And the truth is... it wasn't very hard at all.  I threw some ingredients in a mixer, rolled out the dough, and baked them.  I did cut them into rectangles and poke little holes in them for fun, but, otherwise, they were a breeze!

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After gluing together the frame and setting out the necessary ingredients, we were ready to get started.

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We started by spreading icing on the roof.  They were so intense at the beginning!

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And then "some people" got sidetracked on the task at hand!

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Once we finished licking spreading the icing, we just needed to trim out the houses.

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And then the REAL FUN began... the decorating!

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Then "the sneaking of candy" started.

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The "guilty" are always so easy to spot!

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This time he had a new partner in crime!

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All that sugar gave Jason just enough energy to make the creation of the day... a snowman out of icing!

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And Max could not have been more proud!

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In the end, we finished with two awfully tasty-looking gingerbread houses....

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And two VERY happy little boys!

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Merry Christmas!

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