Gingerbread House

I am blessed with the most talented, generous friends on the planet.  I really believe that.  Look at this beauty!  Remember the camouflage carseat cover I made?  That mom-to-be brought over this HUGE - probably 18" tall - gingerbread house.  I almost cropped my son's drinking cup out of the photo but decided to leave it because it gives the house some scale.  Look at the windows.  They're colored sugar glass.  All of the edges are piped in chocolate.

The gingerbread house alone is impressive.  But our friend also brought over a complete decorating kit.  Wow!  My boys were bouncing like pogo sticks when they opened this.  Of course they had to take everything out and start calling dibs.

Dad was smart and claimed control of the icing bag.

But the boys had plenty of fun.

With uncharacteristic restraint, the boys saved most of the candies to snack on later.  I thought every inch of the house would be covered by some sugary confection.  But no, they wanted the house to look nice and stopped.

I love the little man waving in the front window.

The back of the house had flower boxes under the windows and a cannon on the ground.  Yes, a cannon.  Why a cannon?  Why not.

The boys built a cannon in the front yard, too.  They tried to build a gumdrop snowman, but it couldn't stand on its own.  So the boys propped the snowman in front of the cannon, then Lincoln decided the cannon could blast the snowman up to see Santa Claus.  I love my crazy kids.  The brownie is a flower box with gumdrop shrubs.

Funny story: We made the gingerbread house last night.  This morning I sent the boys downstairs to eat breakfast and get ready for school.  10 minutes later, I still didn't hear the clank of cereal bowls or pop of the toaster.  I called down in my naggy mom voice, "Are you boys eating breakfast?"

"Yes ma'am."

"I don't hear anything"

"Don't worry, Mom.  We are."

Then I remembered...the gingerbread house was still sitting on the kitchen table.  Nice.  That was breakfast.