Gingerbread House Party

I narrowly avoided a disaster this year. When I started baking the pieces for the houses a couple weeks ago, I read the recipe incorrectly and did not add enough sugar to the dough. I knew something was wrong, but I just couldn't figure it out. The dough was elastic. When I rolled it out it would shrink back. Consequently, the pieces were smaller than normal in the first batch, but they were perfect houses for the little kids. I compensated by cutting the pieces larger. That helped but they would still shrink inconsistently and make it difficult get the pieces to match up. It was so much easier once I realized my mistake with the sugar. In spite of my best efforts to mess it up, yesterday's gingerbread house party was another success.

All the houses assembled and ready to be made pretty. Notice the difference between the front center house and the one right behind it? Dat wus me.

 The kid's table...

...and the overrated adult table.

The first time we've had a deer hang. 

Excellent detail work on the window cut outs.

From flamboyant to humble - front view.

Back view. Putting your name on guarantees nobody 

gets confused and takes the wrong house.

My sister, Barb, had an idea and we merged our creative energies on this one. It has a garbage pit, blue tarps, slapped on siding, a successfully hunted animal mounted on the back of the house, duct tape on the windows, an overstuffed chair on the porch, an RV parked in the back with a stone patio and plastic grass walkway, and a free stained couch for the taking.

It's a gingerbread shotgun shack.

Please wipe your feet before coming inside.