So NOT going to be a tradition

I have never ever decorated a gingerbread house before. This was not a holiday tradition in my house. I totally wanted to do it this year. I bought two kits, and had envisioned inviting our neighbours over (with their daughter who is a little younger than Hudson) to decorate one with us. I thought the adults could sip on something alcohol-y and the kids could sip on something festive like hot chocolate or eggnog. (Note: we have never invited them over before, or vice versa...actually we have never had a conversation lasting more than 5 minutes, but that's besides the point).


To make a long story short.


I never invited the neighbours over. And this morning, as I was going stir-crazy at home with a sick toddler and no car, I thought making the gingerbread house would be the perfect activity to pass the time.


I laughed that there was a 7 page pamphlet with detailed instructions on how to build it. It was a ready-made-kit for heaven's sake...mix the icing, glue the house together and stick candy on, right? The instructions, and I quote, said to join the side walls to the peaked walls and let dry one hour. LET DRY ONE HOUR??? And then the next step was to attach the roof panels. And then let house dry 2-3 hours before further decorating. LET DRY 2-3 HOURS MORE??? This was the most absurd thing I have ever heard in my entire life. That is a total of 4 hours of drying time.


I didn't follow the 7 page instruction manual.

I didn't wait the 4 hours.


I glued ALL the pieces of the kit together, held them in place for a few minutes, while yelling at Hudson to STOP licking all the gross-nasty-sweet-as-pure-sugar-icing, and yelling at Bosco to STOP whining and no he wasn't going to get any gingerbread...and eventually made my son bawl his eyes out (has any other mother out there made their kids CRY while decorating a gingerbread house...no?...didn't think so). And so, feeling really guilty for taking my "gingerbread-house-frustrations" out on Hudson, I stopped holding the house together, figuring that it was 'dry enough' for him to decorate...yay the fun part! I pryed open the sealed candy packages, only to have tiny little candy balls go flying everywhere...to Bosco's delight, as he started going mental trying to inhale them as fast as he could before his rotten mama could stop him. And Hudson squealing and pushing more of the candy off the table because it's so much fun to see Bosco snorting up candy like a maniac. This was the total opposite of what I thought decorating gingerbread houses would be like. I'm so glad I didn't invite the neighbours over to witness that fiasco.

And the waiting 4 hours for the house to dry. There's a reason for it.

Our house fell apart while we decorated it. And I left it like that. And now...a few hours later...it's rock hard in that same lop-sided position.

Lesson learned. Follow instructions. Not that I plan on making the other one. I'm going to try to return it and get my $8.99 back.








Who cares what it looks like, it tastes good!

Don't mind the mismatched clothes...he's sick...all I cared about this morning while dressing him was that he was warm and cozy.

Our open-concept Gingerbread house. Yes that would be the side panel fallen over, and both roof panels slid down.

It dried like this. Hudson proudly showed it to Rob when he got home.

I think Bosco might get some, after all.