Saturday, December 26, 2009

it takes a village

For Christmas Eve, I made a whole bunch of gingerbread house parts, bought a whole bunch of candy and things for decorating, and made a bunch of royal icing so that we could all make gingerbread houses.

It was so much fun and I love all the adorable houses everyone made. (so much so I'm posting way too many photos of them- sorry.)

Annie and Michael's has stained glass windows,

and a sandbox and bench in the back yard.

Christian's clear story is very impressive.

Look at that construction!

Mom's has a lovely thatched roof and gumdrop boxwood hedge.

I love Rena's roof and sidewalls.

Marylin's is super cute and has a pile of snowballs ready for a fight.

I'm not sure what's going on with the things hanging off Declan's (age: almost 4) roof, but it's awesome.

His house also had a marshmallow snowman complete with a carrot nose but somebody, not mentioning any names, ate it.

Colin's (age: 5 and 3/4ths) has a family of gummy bears living in it.

Or Colin just stashed a bunch of gummy bears inside it so he can eat them later, I'm not sure which.

The one I made is covered in coconut snow,

but I'm especially fond of my jelly belly/pretzel/fruit roll up fire pit.

Of course, architect Steven built an addition onto his.

And made the second story "more livable" with some dormers.

I can't wait to do it again next year!

17 comments:

Chudney Thomas said...

Way too cute!this was the first year we have done a gingerbread house. I chalk that up to being rushed. Merry Christmas!

Grace said...

Ok, no more store bought gingerbread houses for us. This inspires me to make ours next year. Love the pretzels - so much you can do with them. Will you share your recipe for the house parts???

These are awesome. What a great party idea.

jennifer lorton said...

Super cute village, what a great family holiday project!

Anonymous said...

this is awesome! everytime i see those gingerbread house kits, i'm tempted to get one. but your family took it to a whole new level. so creative!

BonBon Rose Girls Kristin said...

WOW, you guys did an amazing job. What fun! My attempts have never turned out that fab!

Brandi said...

VERY impressive! These houses are adorable and I love that you built an entire village. Do you eat yours? Somehow, eating an entire village would make me feel a bit like some old-time ogre.

Cathie said...

what a great christmassy thing to do with the whole family!! Love it.
I didn't make gingerbread houses this year, wish i had seeing how much family fun you all had.
all the best for the new year ♥

Lauren said...

This is the cutest thing I've ever seen! What a creative family you have!

rls said...

No surprise . . . AMAZING work . . . . VNICE!

chiara said...

awesome! I love them all!!!!

especially the gunny bear family.

and I can't wait til we do ours. you are so clever and sweet to send us a kit in the mail!

Erin @ SYL: Slipcover Your Life said...

These are too cute! I love how everyone came up with so many different ideas!

Courtney said...

These all are absolutely fantastic, and I love that everyone did their own! We used to always make gingerbread houses on Christmas, but we'd divide into two separate teams. I think the individual houses is even better! Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!

Valentia said...

OMG!!! They are absolutely lovely!!!! It's so adorable and really pretty. Each and every piece is so so gorgeous!It sounds like a wonderful family activity and party activity. Thank you so much for sharing. (:

Thank you for dropping by my blog too! It's always great to know that people are actually reading my blog. :D

Shinwha said...

These are so cute! I love how each one is unique

Bryce said...

Declan's house clearly has flying buttresses and a Dutch pulley.

vacation rentals miami beach said...

I never made gingerbread house, but it seems like it can be lots of fun. All tese ar superb.

executive development said...

They are too beautiful to be true! I can't stop looking at these photos. I try to do it every year on Christmas but my ginger bread house just fall apart.