They’re back. The dark cloud in my season of holiday lights and happy Christmas music and visions of cookies dancing in my head. The…gingerbread houses. *shudder*
No, I’m not doing another one. Not ever. I learned my lesson. (http://charleneteglia.com/node/1671) Just walking past them makes my eye twitch.
I’ve always wanted to make one but am too chicken to try. I HEAR that graham cracker ginger(not) bread houses are easier.
What?
I’m not aiding and abetting. Am I?
One year we were invited to a Christmas party at which the hostess thought it would be fun to have the youngest kids gather unsupervised at in her beautiful Ethan Allen dining room to make gingerbread houses from kits while the adults nattered on in the living room.
Never do this. If you’re even tempted, call me and I will talk you out of it.
The gingerbread houses themselves were already put together with icing; all the kids had to do was share some bowls of candy and tubes of frosting and decorate them — and you know how well a dozen ten-to-twelve year olds share?
My kids gave up about ten minutes into the exercise and came out to hang with me and their dad (which is the only reason the hostess is still speaking to me, I think.)
Aside from the endless bickering over who got all the red and green M&Ms, one of the more inventive darlings decided to test and see if Starlight mints slathered with red icing would adhere to the dining room ceiling. Then someone got the bright idea to test the structural integrity of the houses. Meanwhile, the hostess, who was oblivious to all this, spent most of the party in the living room calling out, “I better not hear anymore fighting in there!”
By the end of the night we had a dozen kids hyped up on sugar and smeared with a rainbow of icing, a dozen smashed, broken piles of badly-decorated gingerbread, a dining room that looked like a set from Call of Duty, and a group of mothers who were no longer speaking to each other.
I still have nightmares.
I keep getting tempted by those bloody things, they look soo pretty on the picture on the box (and the Food Network’s Challenge), but I know they never come out looking that good (at least for me). So I’ll just stick to cookies (mmmm cookies).
Just say NO to gingerbread houses! 🙂
That’s right, Ann. Save yourself. Just say no!
Unsupervised?! A mob of unsupervised kids is an invitation to mayhem even without the sugar rush and the inherent evil of gingerbread houses. Glad you got out alive and are still on talking terms. And now I will always remember that when it comes to gingerbread houses, it COULD be worse.
La la la, I can’t hear you!
No, no, no, Annmarie. The graham cracker houses are not, not, not easier. Back when the munchkin was in grade 2 I agreed to help with a holiday craft project the grade 2’s and grade 1’s were working on. I thought it was something simple like candy cane reindeer. No. It was graham cracker gingerbread houses. The brainchild of two student teachers. They had saved 60 single serving milk cartons to use as a base for the houses. The idea being to use icing to glue the graham wafers on to the sides of the cartons. Warm classroom, kids with warm hands. There was no way those wafers were staying on the milk cartons. It went downhill from there.
ROFL I still remember the gingerbread house debacule.
I’ve always wanted to make one of those houses, but after your experience, I decided to save myself and avoid temptation.
There, the insider tip. Don’t be fooled by the “graham crackers are easier” premise. Just say no to gingerbread houses!
NJ, the only safe gingerbread is baked in a pan and topped with whip cream. ; )
I’ll bow to your knowledge. I guess the only good gingerbread house is the ceramic one. lol
And/or lemon curd! YUM!
I love lemon curd.