Hi There! Are you having a good week between Christmas and New Year’s? This is my favorite week of the year — lots of time just lying around relaxing, playing games and dreaming of plans for the coming new year.
As promised, I’ve returned for the Gingerbread report. All of the kids were home for Christmas this year, so we planned our gingerbread competition for the 23rd. As it turned out, CuteNephew didn’t make it home until the 24th, so we missed having him with us for the fun. We had a great time as always, and when we were done, there were candy and frosting and sugar ALL over the kitchen. I think that’s a sign of a successful gingerbread competition! We had five teams this year, so here they are …
Team 1: CuteNiece2 and her Boyfriend. First off, let me say, that two of the teams tried to garner votes by tugging at our heartstrings by bringing up memories of BigDaddy. (Everyone comes prepared with a plan, so they had decided to make BigDaddy houses independently.) They made us go “Awww”, but our votes weren’t so easily swayed LOL. Team 1 decided to do their rendition of BigDaddy’s favorite Mexican food hangout. Inside, they had the family at a big table, with BigDaddy at the head of the table with a giant margarita. There was a giant taco and burrito on the table and all of the family were wearing their “Bob” shirts. (One year for Christmas, we surprised BigDaddy by showing up wearing “Bob” shirts. They all said “Bob’s Daughter” or “Bob’s Grandson” or whatever was the person’s Bob relationship. It was great fun and made BigDaddy Bob cry.) On the outside, they included a cactus (very clever!) and had BigDaddy’s pink jeep parked in the parking lot.
Team 2: MyDadLovesMeBestSister and TheSecondChild. Team 2 decided to do their rendition of BigDaddy’s workshop. They spent a lot of time on the little details and it was so cute. They even left half of the roof off, to make it easier to see the details inside. They had BigDaddy hammering away at his workbench, a woodstove with a big chimney in the corner, and a table saw. (How cute IS that tablesaw???) They also had BigDaddy’s pink jeep parked outside.
Team 3: TheFirstChild and SweetiePie. Well. Not sure what to say about this house LOL. Their house was a rendition of a local business going up in flames. They went to a lot of detail on the people inside the building, but I can’t really elaborate on the details and I had to sensor the sign on the front of this building to protect the innocent. The outside of the building had a lot of flames and a basketball court in the parking lot. I was amazed that these two actually even finished a house — now that they have babies, they had to interrupt their decorating to take care of them several times — they did a great job!
Team 4: Crazy BIL and CuteNiece1. CuteNiece1 owns a small flower business in Chicago, and they created their version of her flower shop. They had great attention to detail with a little tractor in the back driving among the very colorful rows of flowers. I loved that they put skylights in the roof (to grow plants in the building, of course) and their use of the cute holly sprinkles on the roof was so clever!
Team 5: TheManoftheHouse, FinallyAGirl and Me. I was SO excited when SweetiePie said that I could have FinallyAGirl on our team, and since she’s Frozen crazy, I knew we would have to do a Frozen castle. At 3 1/2, FinallyAGirl understood what it was all about this year and she did a GREAT job. I had some little sugar cube snowflakes and I gave her the frosting bag and she squiggled frosting on those snowflakes and then covered them with blue sprinkling sugar. She did all the sugar sprinkling on the roof too — it was great fun and kept her busy when I had to jump up to get something for someone else. You could definitely tell where we were working though — there was sugar EVERYWHERE! She also did a great job placing all the little rock candies along the roof line — she was so careful and it was really fun to watch her. She also placed the Christmas decorations on the house all on her own when we were busy doing other things – I loved that she was brave enough to just decorate on her own.
When it was all over, it was time to vote! The Flower Farm and the Frozen Castle were tied for the most votes, so we had to have a run-off vote and the Frozen Castle narrowly squeaked out a win. Yay for FinallyAGirl!!!
And, there you have it for another fun year. I hope you’re having a fun, relaxing week — I can’t believe this year is almost over!
XOXO,
Anna
I always look forward to your gingerbread house post! It’s a Christmas tradition ?
I’m amazed at the creativity of all the houses. Love that taco shop! Such detail!
what a great tradition your family has – I hope it continues for many years to come :)
I LOVE this when you post about your gingerbread houses. I don’t know how you guys can possibly pick a winner they are all so awesome :) I especially like your story about the Bob shirts :(. Made me tear up. Thank you for sharing and I hope you have many many more gingerbread houses to come.
So fun! A warning, that Frozen obsession just stays and stays.??
What fabulous fun you have!! Thank you so much for sharing this wonderful family time and I heartily agree with the final verdict. Congratulations to all the participants but particularly to FinallyaGirl for such finesse with her decorating. Hugs all round xx
PS I need to go and get some chocolate now ????
Oh what fun! What memories you’ll have! I love seeing your gingerbread houses every year. Thanks for sharing, Happy New Year!
Well FinallyAGirl and her helpers did an awesome job, congratulations on the win!
WOW, but Frozen has my vote! Are you still cleaning up sugar? If I could figure out how to do it on my computer, I would insert one of those laughing/crying emoji’s with the tear, and Frannie’s not home, so I can’t ask. Insert another emoji.
Happy New Year!
So good to see the gingerbread house report once again! Your family’s creativity is a joy to behold!
And I seriously like your idea of Christmas breakfast.
Congratulations on your retirement. There is nothing better than waking up that first morning and knowing that you don’t have to go to work.
I always love to see your family’s gingerbread house competition. I would have voted for the frozen castle. The blue color is what won me over as it just makes it look so pretty. Besides FinallyAGirl did an amazing job of decoratiing.
So glad I waited to see these on the big screen! Congrats on the victory! FinallyAGirl has proven that she is a team asset and formidable opponent! I suspect that her parents will not let your team have her in 2020… And no mention of her eating the decorations. She understands the competition well, indeed!
P.S. Congrats on retirement!!!! It’s so much fun – but you won’t know how you had time while you worked to do all the stuff that you’re going to do…
always so fun see your Gingerbread competition
I can’t even pick a favorite.
Happy New Year!
Amalia
xo