Adventures in Christmas Baking
So during a nondescript meeting back in October I had suggested in passing that we organize a gingerbread house competition over the holidays. Well my suggestion was met with understandable skepticism (our office isn’t exactly known for being “fun”) but after some discussion, it was decided we would give it a shot. Well, let me tell you, people got VERY competitive. People created gingerbread villages, attempted the parliament building, and then of course the more modest versions, like ours. I worked with my dedicated colleagues Patricia and Kathy (with some help from the elves, Sam and Scott) and I think our house turned out REALLY nice! We even won second place!
We called it the “International House” as an homage to our work. Also, we knew we needed a niche in order to compete with the other serious gingerbread house makers (did I mention one even featured an outhouse equipped with mini toilet paper and all!?)
Above, in the lower right-hand corner you’ll notice our water feature with penguins. We also used shreddies for the roof to mimic shingles.
We also used upside-down waffle cones as trees covered in icing and decorated with mini-M&Ms and little silver balls.
We used sticks of gum for the windows and shutters and made a sleigh out of fondant and candy canes.
Kathy went through serious work to make these flags work and I think they add a really unique element to our house.
After all of our work and creativity, I think we ended up with a pretty great house. I’m very grateful for all of the experience I have from making these as a kid with my mom. God bless her patience.
Now I can’t help myself, I have to share a recent hilarious cookie disaster my friend Patricia and I underwent. This is a picture of the pin wheel cookies we were trying to make:
And this is what ours looked like:
HAHAHAhahahaha. At least they tasted good! Lesson learned, refrigerate the dough OVER NIGHT. If I even bother to try this again.
gabandkirby 
Beautiful gingerbread house. You definitely should have won 1st place. Wow I’m impressed.
The cookies are hilarious. You definitely had more ambition than I would ever had to even try this recipe.
Love you