As many of you know, we haven’t gone a year without building and decorating a gingerbread house (see exhibits here, here, here, and here, and we weren’t about to skip it this year. We found something a little different this time, though – a gingerbread turkey kit from Trader Joe’s! We thought it was a fun departure from the usual house, and it also gave us an excuse to exercise our decorating skills a little early, around Thanksgiving time instead of Christmas!
It’s that time again… for one of our favorite holiday traditions: building and decorating the gingerbread house! I’m finding that it gets more and fun with every year, as Mio becomes more capable and involved in the decorating process… she placed a lot of the candy herself this year, and gave us some art direction! Mirei was asleep this year (probably for the better, since she probably would have tried to wreck our creation) but maybe next year she can help decorate, too!
In the days since, she’s been asking if she can break off a piece of candy off the house to eat almost daily. Eating it is part of the fun, too! 😉
See past years’ gingerbread houses: 2013 • 2012 • 2011
Last Sunday, we observed our annual tradition of making a gingerbread house! Mio was fascinated and loved watching the process of the house coming together.
Mio’s been obsessed with the gingerbread house all week, saying “Ginger house! Candy!” We fear that it will not survive until Christmas…
(See more gingerbread house fun from last year and the year before!)
My sister and I built a gingerbread house last night! We had made one last year for the first time in years, and it was so much fun that we had to do it again. This year, we decided to make a time-lapse video to document the process, because we had so much fun making the tree-trimming time-lapse the other week.
We bought the gingerbread house kit from Trader Joe’s, and we really liked it for its unique look, all the materials it came with, and its unbeatable price — only $7.99! It’s imported from Germany, and while we have yet to eat it, the gingerbread was pretty soft and thick coming out of the box, compared to the rock-hard gingerbread you find in most other kits. It looks and smells delicious! I just love everything Trader Joe’s sells, especially during the holidays!
Here is the time-lapse video of us assembling and decorating the gingerbread house! Special thanks to Dan for setting the camera up and editing the video for us. 🙂
Some additional photos…
And Mio’s reaction to the gingerbread house? She saw it this morning during breakfast and broke out into a huge smile!
Maybe next year, Mio will be able to help build one with us! 🙂
My sister Miwa and I built a gingerbread house this evening! I love building them but hadn’t built one in years, and so I determined to construct one this year! It came out a little messy because we didn’t have a piping bag and tips back at my parents’ house in Virginia, but we like to think it has personality! 😛
I can’t wait until the day comes when Mio is old enough to build gingerbread houses with me! 😀