Gingerbread Success!

**I have to apologize in advance for the quality of the photos. A new camera is on my list of needs/wants. It doesn't help that we took the pictures at night with poor lighting either. Sorry!**
I ♥ gingerbread!

Why do I love gingerbread ? Let me tell you a few reasons:

• The word itself. Stop and say it...g*i*n*g*e*r*b*r*e*a*d. It's a cute word!
• It smells amazing!
• It tastes pretty good too.
• Gingerbread men are adorable...truth be told, I'm mildly attracted to them. Weird I know, but I can't help it.
• The possibilities when constructing a gingerbread house are endless. The candy choices, color choices, design choices just go on and on.

Years ago I made gingerbread houses with the boys. I think they were about 12 & 14 years old. They each made one. It was fun. We hadn't made one since. I've always wanted to, just never got around to it.

This year I promised myself it would be different. I had been saving the above pattern and instructions from a 2006 Country Home magazine for all these years and decided it was time to make it happen. I enlisted all three of my guys. Reluctantly at first, I might add.

The entire process took about 4 days. The first day we baked the pieces. The second day we did most of the decorating. On the third day we glued it together and finally yesterday we finished the roof and all the little extras. I LOVE how it turned out! But more than that, I love that my guys actually got interested in the whole process. So much that they are already talking about next years house. I feel like maybe a new tradition has been started.