Gingerbread 2011: the Pious Edition

This year for our gingerbread house, I checked three books out of the library and looked for ideas. And for future years and generations, here's a good rule to live by: "if you ain't baking' it, you don't get to vote on it." Without this rule we ended up choosing a church and I said some truly unholy words while the candy rose window wouldn't cooperate three times.
This is always the point where I contemplate running out and buying a kit. Then I look down and see that I'm covered in molasses and powdered sugar and surrender. In the end, it has always turned out just fine:
We had a good time, but the kids were playing happily downstairs and we didn't want their pestering hands to bother them, so Rob and I did a lot of the decorating. Sebastian put on the roof, Joss placed the shrubs, and Maddie decorated the trees with coconut and candies.
This is the only fuzzy shot we got of the Isaaks' magnificent manor house, which was based on an actual British estate complete with dozens of windows. Curtis decided where certain candies went, particularly on the roofline, from years of experience at picking them off when his mom was looking the other way.
Here's one of my favorite parts of this year's design: the parish cemetery with Pepperidge Farm Mint Milano tombstones. Not our idea, though Maddie's memorial wreath was her own addition.
This is another favorite: the Hershey's Kiss church bell (also borrowed from one of the books).
And finally, a shot of the windows. We set it up as high as we could, but it was still within the reach of Jossmonster and it was only a matter of days before he'd eaten the yogurt pretzel fence and some tree decorations off of the front side only. C'est la vie!

Comments

AA said…
Those look great! Props to you for making the ginger bread yourself!
Holy cow! That's beautiful! You can't tell me that all your kitchen projects were failures this season.
mcid said…
Wow, we just did one from a kit, and I thought THAT was a lot of work. Beautiful church and love the tombstones, roof, and windows. Great job!
Zina said…
Fabulous!

Do your kids enjoy eating it after the season is over, or is it yucky when it's stale? I love the idea of gingerbread houses, but I'm also a little baffled by them because they're not actually particularly edible.
Megan said…
Wow, above and beyond! I'm all about setting low expectations for myself these days, so Cal will be lucky if I let him bust out graham crackers and frosting one year. I'm so impressed!

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