Yes, I'll admit it.
It started out so simply. As a young new mama, I decided it would be fun to purchase a Longaberger Basket gingerbread house mold at a friend's party. With only one child, I thought it would be a special tradition to start with our little boy, Caleb, to bake and decorate a house each year.
Then came Miranda...and two houses...and then Josiah...and then Elijah...and then...
...well, with tiny baby Elijah, Josiah, and Miranda at home and Caleb now in school, my good friend and Caleb's teacher approached me about helping to plan a little Christmas project for his class. Hmmmmm...maybe I could bake a house for each child so they could decorate their own house? Then we added the older kids class too because there were only three kids in that class that particular year. What's a couple more houses?
The next year, we expanded the project a bit and Miranda's kindergarten class decorated sugar cookies.
Then...why not have the whole school decorate houses together?
It is a small, private school. So the entire school only means that I bake and assemble about 30 houses each year. Uhm...yeah, you read that right. This little project became an annual tradition.
It is the most amazing experience to watch kids create with such an open-ended project! I love doing this so much that some years I have even expanded it to other groups (yes, that means baking more houses). One year with did it with a children's choir group. Then a few years ago we did it for our children's worship kids (I cheated a bit and used some pre-baked houses. Yuck! They smelled like cardboard and broke into pieces so easily. I prefer working with real gingerbread.)
With all the craziness of this year, especially the month of November, all I could manage was just the school kids. This was an especially fun year because it was Hadassah's first gingerbread house.
I've just got to share some of the pictures from this year!
We start out with little naked houses.
Add lots of sugar and cookies and crackers and cereal and chocolate...
Then the creative chaos begins
So first, here are my kiddos creations. Hadassah...
Keziah...
And Elijah...
Now for more of the fun and creativity...
An eagle
See the fishing pond to the left?
Another fish pond
Loved the star patterned roof
Beautiful
Harrry, one of the school cats, LOVES the icing
and keeps a close eye on all the artistic creations
Candy EXPLOSION
Poor Mr. Gingerbread Man!
A snowman
Gum shingles, a Red Hot decorated tree,
and a Hershey bar chimney with Santa's feet sticking out
An igloo under construction
A sugar cube snowball fight
A marshmallow snowball to the face
There's no place like home for the holidays
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