This Is What a House Should Look Like

It might have been the request to see a new one on this blog or the fact the kit was there waiting for me, but whatever the reason I again attempted to build a cookie house with my son.

In December 2009, I thought I would test my skills and my patience and make a gingerbread house for my son.

It was a disaster, and that is being generous.

This year, through work, I interviewed a woman who suggested people should have a gingerbread house making party rather than a traditional cookie exchange.

It would be more fun, she said, to gather your friends together, provide created gingerbread houses and decorate as they wished.

Once the interview was posted, KS said she would like to see a new gingerbread house picture posted on my blog. I didn’t think it would happen this year.

But then, this weekend, we went to the local apple orchard’s customer appreciation event and what did I spot – an apple spice cookie cottage kit. I bought it.

And this year I was smart enough to let my husband do the building and my son do the decorating.

So here you go, K, this house is for you.

Pathetic, Really

“Pathetic isn’t he?” Ron Weasley asks Harry Potter in the first book of the same name.

“Just a little,” replies Harry.

And pathetic is what you would say to my attempt at building a gingerbread house.
Despite the urge to create a cookie masterpiece, I should have known the end result would be far less spectacular than what I had imagined. After all, my incredibly patient mother vowed she would never make one again.

My brothers and I used to make Christmas gifts from my mom’s brother, sisters and parents. One year, we created six gingerbread houses, which, I might add, looked a lot better than the monstrosity I created yesterday.

First of all, I used a mix. My husband free-handed the house design, which I then baked and cooked up trees, a reindeer and gingerbread men with the extra dough. Yesterday, I whipped up a different type of icing and tried to stick the pieces together.

Yikes.

My peaked roof became a flat one and the entire house has a lean to it. I could hear the ‘Christmas lights’ falling off and hitting the ‘ground’ and the wreath slid down, pushing the door to the floor. But my chimney and gingerbread man look good, and the presents - which I did create - are pretty impressive, too.

Unfortunately, the icing tastes terrible and the cookie itself isn’t that great either. So it will be pathetic decoration for the holidays and then the compost can have it.