Gingerbread House

We've made it a yearly tradition to make a gingerbread house with the girls. It was two years ago we did this for the first time. I was looking for something to do that would make it feel Christmasy in our Caribbean home. Something about 90 degrees and sunny didn't scream holidays for me. Little did I know that this was the start of an obsession with gingerbread. Some kids ask for chocolate chip cookies; mine request gingerbread. Year round. What do you want for a snack? Gingerbread! Should we bake something? Gingerbread! It helps that thanks to a friend in Seoul a few years ago I know have the quintessential gingerbread recipe. Thick, soft, chewy. Just right. This year I have made more gingerbread than most people will make in a lifetime. At least once a month I break out the recipe (though not needed anymore, it is committed to memory). We have had gingerbread dinosaurs, gingerbread pumpkins, and lately in an attempt to interest Hannah in letter recognition, gingerbread letters. 

The holidays were so busy this year the yearly gingerbread house was nearly lost along the way. Thanks to childhood persistence, though, we managed to pull this out at the last minute. It took almost three batches of dough to make the house itself. I'm a little ginger-breaded out. . . . .

The before shot. I put the house together and let the frosting cement.

My girls decorating the house. The attention to detail- oh my!

The girls required a little help with the frosting application. The candy application was another story- no help required there! No help required with the mass consumption of decorative details either. . . .

Emily left me a message I found while I cleaned up. She came and translated for me: "It is a J for Jennifer and a heart for love." She's pretty sweet, I guess we can keep her =)