Gingerbread house, Phase II

When we last posted, Claire and mom were putting the finishing touches on their gingerbread house. Evening was turning to night. Conversation went a little like this:



Did you catch that look on mom's face?!?!?

Needless to say, somebody was very pleased with themselves...



and having trouble keeping her hands off the house.








We went to bed that night hoping to let the house and its icing glue settle.

Settle it did.

Dad got up in the middle of the night to find it collapsing. Frightened by the implications of making it worse (a tearful, angry child) and unsure how to fix it (complete structural incompetence), he woke mom to tell her the grim news.



Mom, stunningly, thought it all pretty funny. Especially dad's reaction.



She diagnosed the problem as too-soft gingerbread. In other words, she didn't bake it long enough. So nice of her to take responsibility rather than to shift it onto the person who loaded the house's roof down with an inordinate amount of mints, gummy worms and gum drops.

Dad sure enjoyed those gum drops.