Gingerbread building

Oh what a weekend.

I slept in on Saturday. I love sleep. I am quite good at sleep. I am a bear without enough sleep. So on Saturday I slept in. And I woke up to a very cute little boy and a clean kitchen. Husband is kind of amazing.

Saturday evening we decided it was too cold to go to the Christmas Village and Kathryn came over to have dinner and make gingerbread houses. Having experienced last year's making a gingerbread house from scratch project I was not nearly as nervous. I still maintain a kit works fine and we probably should have worked our way up to making one from scratch but Husband likes to dive into projects instead of wading.

We made a template for our house during nap time, I guess we dreamed a little bit too big so we wound up sizing it down quite a bit. But it was still plenty big. We made two batches of dough in order to make both houses. (One for us and one for Kathryn.) Our had a chimney and entry way added on, while Kathryn's was just our basic shell.

All in all it took a long time. But we persevered. Both houses survived shaking laughter while the royal icing dried. Candy was consumed right along with the construction. We stayed up way too late. But it was all worth it for these:

Kathryn enjoyed building her house. It was her first gingerbread house from scratch. This is the front. The back of her house says "Merry Christm (smudge)" in royal icing with crushed peppermint. It was SO funny that she couldn't squeeze in the a and s. It really really was. 

This is our house. We opted for a red and white theme and then added the wreath because the front needed something. My entire vision this year was for a shaved almond roof. So I got to work right away. And then when that was done I was pretty much useless. I had no ideas. The peanut brittle chimney was actually our second chimney attempt. Husband made an M&M chimney originally at my direction. But we had different visions so I did it over. After I removed the M&Ms I determined my vision with the delicious red candies wouldn't have worked either. We used the peanut brittle left over from Kathryn's roof. This marks our second year of a red, white and green color scheme. Next year we're breaking out and it's going to be colorful! 

Sunday brought a snowy day and brunch with friends. That was nice. After Sunday nap we all went outside to shovel our 2.3 inches. It was C's first time with his snowpants and boots. He did well. And all in all I think he liked the snow. Generally. No tears until it was time to come inside. Now our little neck of the woods has a reputation for the snow to not last very long. The weather is supposed to be cold for the rest of this week but who knows if it will last 17 more days until Christmas? I do love a white Christmas. 

After C went to bed we finished up The Amazing Race. (YAY Team that Won!! Sorry it was a spoiler all day!!) We've been tuning in since it is before The Good Wife. Now both shows are on hiatus and that is a bummer. I strongly dislike winter hiatus time in TV world. We also wrapped all the presents that are in the house. I have 2 more shipments coming in this week, they'll be here by Wednesday. And then my only non-Amazon or in-store purchase will arrive sometime before Christmas. But now I am DONE DONE DONE with Christmas shopping and THAT is something to celebrate! 

So far we've decorated, got the Christmas cards out, gingerbread house made, finished shopping and started wrapping. Pretty snazy place to be by December 9. 

Alright I am going to leave you with another gingerbread house picture. It is the exact same picture as before just with the filter. I love the filter. It's all old-timey and Betty Crocker Cooky Book-esque. Which is my FAVORITE cook book of all time, if you need a gift idea for someone in your life. I have my Grandma's copy, with vanilla stains and her notes and extra recipes she clipped from newspapers and magazines. The binding isn't doing so well. But then I also got a new edition and it's exactly the same! Spelling it cooky and everything. It is a delightful delightful book. I highly recommend it. 

Have a good Monday!