Bring on the Gingerbread

Another one of our FAVORITE Christmas traditions is making Gingerbread houses. We did this as I was growing up and has been so fun to do with my kids. We made the gingerbread houses one morning while daddy was still in Africa and then put them in ziploc baggies until he came home a few days later. JJ and Calli are quite the budding bakers. They LOVE to help me in the kitchen and even though it makes a bigger mess it is pretty fun to watch them.

The only problem is fighting who gets to put what ingredients in and who gets to stir and if I am not watching closely we may end up with more ingredients then we needed. They have a tendency to get a little carried away sometimes!

The most fun is when everything is all mixed up and then we get to roll it out and cut out the shapes. And of course eat some of the dough. Calli is especially guilty for stealing the cookie dough before it makes it in the oven. Little stinker!

Here are our finished products. I made two houses one for JJ and one for Calli and figured John and I could each help one of them. Then we had some extra dough so we made extra gingerbread boys to eat and man were they GOOD! I seemed to have over come my first trimester nausea just in time for all of the holiday goodies.
Then on Tuesday night after daddy got home we got to put them together and decorate them. JJ and I were a team and Calli and daddy were a team. JJ really got into it this year more then the other years. He was all about putting the icing on and building the house even more then he wanted to decorate it.

Calli was really into eating all the candy! She had fun too but would run in and out a little bit.
John held strong though making their house very cute!
JJ had lots of fun ideas about what candies should go where.
I LOVE that my hubby will participate in these super fun family activities. He is the BEST!!
Mommy and Calli working together on JJ's house while he decided to decorate the Christmas tree with some of the extra candy canes. It was actually really cute I think next year I will buy candy canes to specifically put on the tree.
Calli of course had to try the candy canes to make sure they weren't poison or anything. I am not for sure why I thought it was a good idea to have my kids where white shirts while making gingerbread houses but thankfully we have a great washing machine and all came out fine.

Our little worker bee off to decorate the tree.
He figured Calli was on the right track and he might as well try out some of the candy too.
Then he was back to finish up his house. By this time he was professional and took over the icing department.
John finishing off he and Calli's house as well.

And little missy is clearly up to no good as you can see from her expression although I can't remember what she is actually doing.
I already can't wait until next year we had so much fun. Maybe we will have to make a Valentines house or something?
Calli and her finished gingerbread house.
Her and daddy did such a great job.

So precious.
JJ and his finished gingerbread house from the front

and from the back.

He iced and decorated the roof all by himself. I love this tradition and look forward to many years of gingerbread house making in our future.