Gingerbread house, Phase 1

OK, so this actually took place several days before Christmas, during one of those snow-packed days when Sarah didn't venture out and the rest of us were content to stay indoors, too.

The oldest girls decided to make a gingerbread house. From scratch. None of those Trader Joe's pre-packaged haunts in this house. No sir. With a little help from Joy of Cooking and I don't know what other sources, Sarah and Claire found a pattern and recipe and went to work.



Claire loved pounding on the dough and only ate about one-fourth cup of it raw.



The dough was molded into squares and rectangles and set outside in the cold to firm up.





Now the fun part! While Claire napped, mom started assembling the house. It was as if Sarah had been beamed back to that pottery class she often pines for.



Icing became glue in her hands. It also became faux icicles.



She used her college coffee cup to prop up the side while she constructed.




Claire awoke to a house that needed decorating. She was excited and sneaking tastes, but still talking sleepy nonsense.



She plunged into the bags and bags of gumdrops, gummy penguins, gummy worms and peppermints that dad bought (too much of, conveniently) at Winco.






"How do you make icicles," Claire would ask later. "Nature makes icicles," dad replied. "What!?" she asked. "Nature," he said. "What's nature?" she asked. "It's everything outside," dad said in his finite wisdom.



The gummy bears became a bit of a point of contention....



What does the end product look like? You'll have to come back to find out.