Gingerbread House

I make one of these most years.  It should not be as stressful by now.  When the kids were little, I did it after they were in bed each night, so each morning there was something fun to wake up to.  Who am I kidding, I did it after bedtime so I didn’t have any help.  I don’t decorate cakes, so I rely upon the snow and cuteness to hide all the flaws. 

About Oct, I start thinking about what I want to make… this years’ house I made years ago, and remembered how fab it was, but couldn’t find the pattern anywhere.  It came from Good Housekeeping Magazine sometime around one of my daughters' high school graduation.  I kept a lot of the old Christmas issues, but couldn’t find it anywhere.  Sooo, on to Ebay, where it was for sale—Dec 1995 issue. YAY!!

Then onto making the dough—not their recipe, but one that I got I don’t know where, but like better.  When I make my dough, I put lots more cinnamon, cloves and ginger in it so it will smell good for the month.  No, we don’t eat it, after it sits out a month, its’ dusty and dry and the candy is bad.  Who eats gumdrops, anyway? And gingerbread?

When I start cutting out the patterns, I always wonder how and why I get myself into this…there are like a million pieces and I don’t know what I’m doing. But it smells so good while it’s baking. Because I tell everyone that I am making one, there’s no quitting! And I make some more houses—just basic ones for the grandkids, cause I’m that crazy. Cutting it out and baking takes all day.

   After that, I get to trim all the pieces to get them to the real size.  With the same razor knife, I scrape the edges until they are the size of the pattern.  Some houses this is more important than others.  This house has a lot of different roofs and porches, so, once again, I am left wondering, why I put myself thru this???

Next look at the instructions and see what I’m supposed to do.  What actually am I gooing to do??  I don't decorate like a professional!  Anywho, I get to stucco and put the windows in while the walls are flat.  And decorate trees and the greenery on the house.  The trimming and decorating are on day two.

Now comes the building phase… first the walls are put up, with  canned goods holding them.  Go away for a couple of hours—the walls need to dry real good—is that English?—before the roof goes on. 

Before the roof, I need to make sure I put in the Christmas tree and the lights. Put the roof on, making sure it isn’t sliding off. The roof will dry overnight. Then, on to decorate the roof. Since this house has stucco on it, it is mostly decorated except the roof. After putting the red hots on by the hour, or so it seems, finish up the outside, and PRESTO, all done!

Don’t forget to hide the magazine so no one can compare, and everyone will think it’s the most fabulous gingerbread house ever.  And if they don’t, tell them it is!  After the season, we burn it up in the fireplace—it’s loads of fun.  More pics later of that.