Gingerbread House

For the last couple years I have been really excited to build gingerbread houses with Ella...something I remember doing in school every Christmas when I was in Elementary School. It was so much fun! A few years ago, I made a go at doing an "entirely homemade" gingerbread house...making the dough, baking the cookies, letting them cool, and then frosting. Blah, blah, blah. By the time I was ready to actually decorate the thing, I was so exhausted from all the prep I had no desire to finish it. But I did, and it was no fun. So, imagine my excitement when I was shopping at Target one day and passed a "Gingerbread House Kit" all wrapped up in a pretty little box for a grand total of $8! (it's the little things that make me happy) We all gathered in the kitchen to build our masterpiece...divided out the candy, kneaded the frosting, laid out the cookies. Ella was pumped! It didn't take long to build the house frame but then, as we read the directions, it told us we had to wait for 15 minutes to let it "mold together" before we could start decorating. Now, for those of you who don't have a 2 year-old, 15 minutes is like an ETERNITY! So we waited. And waited. And, finally it was time. What you see in the first picture is exactly how the entire process went...I would frost, Rusty would decorate, and Ella would sample all the icing she could get her fingers into! It might not have been the "Norman Rockwell" painting I had pictured in my head, but it was fun. And, we will continue the tradition every year!