Gingerbread Houses

For Family Home Evening this week we made some gingerbread houses. In the past we haven't been very successful with our gingerbread houses, but we have been getting better, so I like to get the kits if possible. IKEA has some really good ones for really cheap, but this year I wasn't fast enough and they were out before I got there. So I almost didn't do it this year, but I feel like I haven't been as fun this Christmas due to being pregnant and being more busy that I decided to do it anyway.

So I made the dough Saturday, and put it in the fridge over night. I was planning on baking them Sunday and build them but I was busy doing other things that I ended up doing that all Monday. It took a lot of time... that I would suggest doing all this the day before you decorate... or when you aren't pregnant. I started the cutting and baking during Oliver's nap and it took me the full two hours, between the rolling out the dough, to cutting the shapes, and baking them. Thomas helped me and was a good little helper, but I had to keep telling him not to stick his fingers in the dough right after I rolled it. Silly kid! And the house smelled so good all day!

Then I decided to use Hot Glue gun to build them ahead of time. I would highly recommend that if you have young kids, because at least for my kids, they are more interested in the decorating part, so it skipped that part and they stayed interested longer. Also the glue gun dries faster so it was quicker and they didn't fall apart like our past houses.

By the end of the day after I did that work I wasn't sure if I was in the mood to decorate them, but I'm so glad we did! They were a hit! The kids loved it, and wanted to keep going, that after two hours we told them it was way too late to keep going, they had so much fun I'm ALMOST tempted to make more this year... almost... Dustin helped Thomas and I helped Oliver. They did so good. Dustin and I were in charge of the icing while the kids put the candy on. Thomas told Dustin where to put the icing, while I told Oliver where to put the candy, so it worked out great! And it's probably the first time I'm  proud of our houses! That I think for now on I will make the gingerbread, but we will see. 

After decorating we got the kids ready for bed and let them look at the Christmas tree for a few minutes before bed, it reminded me as a kid always sitting by our Christmas tree waiting for Christmas to come. Kids make Christmas magical again, I love it!

Then this last picture was Sunday while watching the Christmas Devotional. The kids love eating popcorn and watching a movie, it's become a fun thing we do once a week, or twice this past week thanks to the Devotional.