Decorating Gingerbread Houses: A Christmas Tradition

On Sunday, the kids finally got to decorate gingerbread (read: graham cracker) houses.  Ben helped me whip up a batch of Royal Icing and it worked really well.  It only took a short time to dry, but Jack just couldn't wait for the icing to dry.  So he kept playing with his gingerbread house while I was doing other things in the kitchen, and after multiple repairs, the house just came apart.  I was able to save enough bigger pieces to make Jack a new (smaller) house, though, so it wasn't the end of the world.

All of the kids were really into this this year, except Luke.  Ben got him to put a few items on one side of the house, but that was all he was interested in.  That meant I got to finish decorating the other side of the house.  Fun for me!

                                                                                                                               

Also, as a bonus family history reference, I thought I'd share this photo my Oma showed me earlier this year.  She and her sister-in-law, my Great-Aunt Irene, used to decorate gingerbread houses together every year.  She told me that Irene would bake two sets of gingerbread house pieces so that they could each have one to decorate.  (They also did candy-making, and we LOVED their pecan rolls.) 

Christmas 1987

Oma and Irene were very close friends for many years.  They loved to be together at their homes or traveling to exciting places around the world with their husbands.  Irene was a bright, cheerful woman, whom I always enjoyed being around.

After suffering from dementia for several years, Irene passed away a few days ago.  Her funeral was today.  She is truly missed on this earth, but I am thankful that she is now released from the illness that took over her life.