2017 Halloween Gingerbread Houses!

Another year has come and gone, and the calendar reminded me that it was time for the annual gingerbread house decorating with my grandchildren.  This year marked the 8th year I've done this as well as the most ambitious and exhaustive. I'm a planner, a fairly organized person.  I've been buying candy and supplies for weeks but, due to two parties and a long weekend away, I was not able to begin the baking and assembling of the houses and accessories until the week of our event. Gosh, did that make for a crazy week!  Each night I would come home from work and make dough and/or cut and bake.  Friday night my Hubbers and I put the houses together and we made the licorice trees the night before that.  I spent most of Friday decorating cookies, making fences, and doing the "glass" windows. Saturday I organized the table for the girls.  My almost-three year old grandson is too young to participate, but I made him his own house Sunday morning. By the time my three granddaughters left that afternoon and I cleaned the kitchen (I swear I will be cleaning up sprinkles and gingerbread crumbs for weeks!), it was after 5 on Sunday.  I made my Hubbers take me out to dinner AND a drink!

Oh, but I enjoy this day.  It's a day that I get to selfishly spend with my granddaughters, with no other happenings or people to take their time.  I love how their coordination and imagination grows each year. I especially saw that with the youngest girl.  In prior years she tended to copy her older cousins.  This year she had her own ideas.  My oldest granddaughter needed very little help from me this year, she had her own ideas and knew how to do it!

For whatever reason, my creative side was in full force with this year's endeavor.  I decided to do a little witch theme so spent an afternoon playing with fondant; making witches' hats, shoes and cauldrons. Each time I would shop for candy or sprinkles I would see something that I just knew would work.  Trust me, the girls had no lack of supplies to choose from! I learned how to use Isomalt, which is a liquid sugar, to make the windows. My Hubbers bought battery-powered lights and we put them inside the houses.  The girls loved this!

It was fun, I'm glad it's over, I'm glad my kitchen is no longer consumed with all things gingerbread.  But we had a few discussions yesterday about next year's houses and I'm already making notes!

This post is heavy on pics, there are so many fun elements to share!

Each girl was given an identical house, tree, fence and props.  After that it was up to their imagination and the supplies we had!

I love our cauldrons with the bubbling mixture boiling away.  Oops, looks like a witch crashed and fell into the brew!

 

Such concentration!

 

 

 

 

I'm linking up to Inspire Me Tuesday