Christmas in June?

Actually, I'm just getting to pictures from December 2010 and thought you might like to see our annual Gingerbread project. Several years back one of the home school moms started this tradition of a Gingerbread Party for all the home school kids, and I continued on with it once they moved away. Now that we've moved to WI, I have a sign up sheet at church for anyone who would like to decorate a house. All they have to bring is a couple bags of goodies to decorate with, I provide the houses and frosting. The girls had fun helping me out with several of the batches this year.

First step-mixing the batter. Love the tongue sticking out!

After the dough is mixed, I put some of it on a WELL greased cookie sheet that has only one side.

Then I dust the top with flour and roll out directly on the cookie sheet.

I used to use paper patterns and trace around them with a knife, but a year ago I found these cookie cutters that work MUCH faster! I found them at Michaels and I'm pretty sure they were Wilton, but not positive.

After the pieces are cut, I remove any excess dough from around the pieces and pop it in the oven. The cookies expand as they cook, so as soon as I take it out of the oven, I re-cut the cookies with the cutters to make sure they are all the same size and quickly remove them to a rack to cool.

After all the pieces are baked, we take all the pieces over to our church kitchen where the girls and I and a couple other volunteers assemble all the houses. As the families come, the goodies they bring are divvied up among the tables so everyone gets a little bit of everything to play with. Here's a couple of the tables. I think we made 30 houses this year.

So far, I haven't been able to decorate one of my own yet, as I am usually busy helping everyone get settled and making sure there's enough frosting to go around. That's OK with me though, as I have time to walk around and snap pictures of all the fun. I love to see how focused the kids can get on their houses. I love the look on her face because she had just popped a piece of candy in her mouth and that is totally an "I didn't do it" look. :o)The older ones seem to plan out their houses in advance and bring special candies to make it with. I love to see how creative they get and the fun they have while they're working.I could show you a bunch of pictures of the finished houses, but I think I will finish here with this cute one of the poor guy who fell off his ladder while putting up his Christmas lights. Too cute!

Well, I think that about does it for now. Hope you enjoy seeing and reading about our holiday fun. Let me know if you are interested in making houses yourself, I will be happy to post the recipe and give you any tips I can to make it easy.

Till next time...God's love and blessings!!