Enough years of working during the holiday season have passed. . .

. . .for me to enjoy holiday baking again. A few years ago, I was working at a cute bakery, and boy were we busy at Christmastime. As if all the holiday orders weren't enough, we held classes and parties for all ages. They take place year round, and usually they would decorate individual cakes, but at Christmas they made gingerbread houses. I seriously never wanted to make, roll out, clean-up, or even look at a gingerbread house ever again after that. We had to assemble them so they would be ready for the guests to decorate. For some reason, we used this terrible dough that was incredibly hard to roll out. (The sugar and molasses were cooked before adding the other ingredients so when it was cold, it was hard as a rock. I'll never know why she insisted we use that recipe.) We were exhausted, with the parties being very popular, and my boss never wanting to turn one down because of the great money she made from the parties (I think they were something like $35-$50/person for a 1 1/2 hr class, and we had an 8 person minimum). And although I respected that, I seriously was so sick of those blasted parties.

So I didn't even think about assembling any gingerbread houses since then (unless of course someone did the hard part,then I'd gladly joined in the fun). But this year, I've been feeling so relaxed being done with most of my holiday responsibilities, I felt adventurous enough to give it a go. It started out being a fun project idea for just KC and me, but I had enough dough to make a little house for Wade and Iris to decorate when I went to babysit. It was the perfect activity to do on a very rainy day. They had such pride in their creation. I loved seeing how happy they were to be a part of such an activity. Iris even said "I can't believe it" in her cute little amazed voice. I also loved they candy and sugar covered faces. Wade is using all restraint to not eat it until Christmas. I will never understand how children can hardly resist stale gingerbread and candy, though I suppose I was just like them once upon a time. Btw, just click on the pics to go to picasa if you want to read the captions.

KC and I just weren't getting to decorating our house, and with all the makings taking up valuable space in the kitchen, I asked Molly if she wanted to do it with me during the day. I knew KC wouldn't mind. With him being pretty busy with work, it didn't seem a priority. Molly and I had a great time chatting and giving input on various decorating techniques. It will be another fun decoration until the season it through.

I wouldn't say that I'm going to make this a tradition, for fear that it will become a burden next year if we don't have time, but I did enjoy this little activity in my spare time. I felt like a kid again. And isn't that one of the best parts of Christmas? So here's what's on display at my house. Not the greatest of creations, but it's fun to look at nonetheless. Oh, and when Wade and IJ saw this one when they came over yesterday, they thought they had died and gone to heaven with it being about 3x the size of theirs. I, however, like the one they made much better.


The front
My favorite feature, Santa.The back (I never claimed to be good at writing with a pastry bag, but this was especially hard writing at this angle.)
I made a fire pit with root beer barrels, m&ms, and toasted coconut.

And a few animals, considerably smaller that the fire pit. (It's about make-believe, right?)
I also thought some icicles would add some charm. Molly made the festive front decorations (I forgot to cut a door, but it's better that it's closed for the cold winter.) Also notice my free hand cut trees. I thought they needed to look rustic, as trees do. There you have it. I'm really loving this time of year. Now, if this incessant rain could turn into snow. At least for next Thursday.