A Gingerbread House Tradition

Today, Siobhan and I had the opportunity to take part in a friend's Christmas tradition which they've been doing for the past 15yrs, their Gingerbread House Tradition.

Steve's wife Liola prepared from scratch the walls, roof, windows and door for 3 ginger bread houses. There were three families and each one received a house neatly stacked just like it was just delivered by Beaver Lumber to build and decorate.

When we showed up, we handed over our contribution of candy and icing sugar where Liola and her sister Pam got to work mixing up the icing mortar. Soon, we were all assembling our respective house. This is only a portion of the candy available for decorating.

Once complete, we had about an hour of down time so that the icing could harden. Steve and Liola served up a realyl yummy spread of finger foods.

With full bellies and icing mortar set as hard as cement, we got to decorating. Jujube, candy sprinkles, jelly beans and licorice... there was more than enough, even for little ones. I don't think Brendan has had that much candy in one go. He seemed to have something new in his hand every time I looked at him. I think Steve's youngest, Rene, was sneaking him a candy here and there.









Overall, the whole experience took 6 hours and was such a pleasure, I think we might steal this excellent Christmas idea for next year. Here's a picture of our finished gingerbread house. Thanks Steve and Liola.

On a closing note, the drive home was awful. We didn't drive any faster than 55kph because of the blowing snow and reduced visibility. I guess Siobhan's brother Paddy will get his white Christmas!