Gingerbread Part 1.5

The little thief in action.

I love the concentration-it is a serious business and she knows it!

Lucy held onto those candy canes waiting for them each to set. When she sets her mind to something...I was in a good mood and there was no whining involved so hold away!

Ed would eat the candy off faster than I could put it on. Note Mark's "Feliz" lights draped in the background. We have a good laugh over them most every night. Our decorating skills are special.

Yummy! My kiwi kids just love gingerbread!

I know the anticipation has probably killed my reader by now, but you will have to wait a bit longer for the finished houses. I just have to say that I LOVE to make gingerbread houses. I love the smell of the gingerbread, the challenge of construction, the piles of candy and seeing the varying results. This year was particularly exciting for me because it was the first year that I had meringue powder for my royal icing. It made it A LOT easier and the consistency was perfect-as noted on the detailing on the houses. I admit, once again I mixed them up during assembly so all the windows were on one house and I was too lazy to properly construct Ed's mini-house, but all in all it went well.
I had skimped on Ed's house so I could have some spares to eat and decorate with but Ed had other plans. Turns out he is a gingerbread fiend. I had put the gingerbread in the oven to shelter it from some of the humidity, I am not sure if that works, but I was willing to give it a go...Ed found this out and took the liberty of helping himself whenever he pleased. Come to fine he probably ate a baker's dozen worth of reindeer and then he proceeded to rip them off of the houses. I think it is finally out of his system...Or perhaps this is payback for all those times I would bite off just the heads of the sugar cookies and run away?
P.S.
If anyone is curious I use the gingerbread house recipe from nickjr.com. It works every time. I actually roll it out super thin and I get a couple of houses from one batch of gingerbread.