Look how proud this
girly is! She is posing with her prizes after her Candy Castle won the Judge's Choice at the Gingerbread Contest/Silent Auction. We are so excited for Elena's accomplishment...she chose a really fun design and added lots of intricate details to her creation this year.
Kai also did a great job on his house...he loved that the candy on the front looked like a frown face with sad eyes (don't ask me why "sadness" should be any part of a candy house, but what can I say...he's five).
Whoever won his house got an autographed masterpiece...that is KAI spelled out in pretzels on the back. His favorite part was the backyard fire pit made out of Juicy Fruit sticks with peppermints all around.
There were 18 entries...and they were all crafted with love and imagination! Kudos to Dianna
Scalf and her crew for organizing a great event for the
Raymore Parks Foundation. I really love being able to teach my kids about serving the community while having fun and being creative. A great lesson in giving...they are stoked that their efforts might help take care of their soccer fields!
The kids loved voting for their favorites by dropping quarters in the jars!
After much deliberation on how to decorate my row houses, I think the end result was very nice. I also think meticulous people should beware of gingerbread decorating...the level of perfection you set in your brain may lead to insanity. At least for a couple days. Anyway, I suppose it is less stressful than a wedding cake while still letting me get the food artist bug out of my system. For awhile.
The sucker sticks on the peppermints were the only non-edible items in the design. I loved making the wrought iron fencing. It's spaghetti coated with black royal icing. The piped on garland made it look a lot less "haunted
housey". And we all loved the milk chocolate candy rocks! I dug out the red ones for a bit of path leading up to the chocolate covered graham steps.
Since my theme was "Peace, Love & Joy in San Francisco" (inspired by
Eric and I's trip there last March) I couldn't sprinkle everything with snow...dang! I mean, I
could have, but according to good ol' google it only snows there once every 25 years or so.
And thanks to my dear sister
Jodi who gave me long-distance advice on details (yay for email photos)...the candles in the windows added the perfect touch! I tried something new for the grass and green bushes this year: crushed Triscuits mixed with lots of green coloring carried in a corn syrup base. I think a lot of people use tinted coconut but I didn't have any. For the bushes I rolled some mini marshmallows in green royal and then rolled them in the cracker concoction. Worked like a charm...especially since I had to squeeze them on after I had placed the yard ornaments.
So that's a wrap! If you'd like the pattern for the row houses, Kai's elf house or the
farmhouse from two years ago, visit
Ultimate Gingerbread. We have a bunch of mini houses we are making as gifts so as long as Eric doesn't eat all the candy before then...we'll be living in gingerbread land a little bit longer. Blessings, Resa
Food-wise, I didn't get crazy with the gingerbread this year. I only got wild enough to make little Christmas mice candies at Jodi's (from Sandra Lee's Semi-Homemade magazine--no recipe on her site though). They were, frankly, a pain in the neck. But they did get easier as I went along...and looked better :) Plus, they all tasted yummy!
