Catching That Gingerbread Man

Oh MY Dog! We had quite the time on Sunday. The house smelled of gingerbread from all the baking and prepping for the party. Come party time there was also additional FOOD smells like onion dip, cheese platter, fruit salad, and chinese noodles. It was an SENSORY symphony!

These are the NAKED houses. Don't they look FULL OF POSSIBILITIES? We were expecting about 8 kids including those from Casa de Noodles.

The way it was set up, the child would grab a plastic tub and fill it with the candy HE or SHE wanted on their house. And there was really no limit because we had A LOT A LOT of candy.

Here is a photo of the CANDY BAR.

Once they picked out their candy they went down to the table, picked out their house and a bag of frosting. Then it was DECORATING TIME. I was the official CANDY CATCHER and hung out under the table. I didn't get very much, though. Those kids were just too good with keeping the good stuff for their houses.

I think it took about an hour - hour and a half for them to finish decorating. Then the older kids talked and the younger ones took Molly and Me our for a walk/run. They were pretty funny. I got lots of attention of which I cannot get enough.

Here are the houses all decorated. I did not get a couple of them because the humans took them home before I got my act together with the camera.

This little guy is 3 and this was his FIRST gingerbread party

This little guy is now 10 years old! 

This minimalist abode was created by a 21 year
old

A budding architecture at 11

Cousin C could do better

This one has a whole story to it

This was a lot of fun and I cannot wait until next year's party.

Gingerbread Party

GingerNoodles

Lotsa lotda TO-DOing at Casa de Noodles. In addition to the usual Christmas Crazy, Mommys 1&2 are having a Gingerbread Party. This is a party where kids come over and decorate gingerbread houses. My mommys have been making and baking ALL WEEK. The house smells so heavenly. I have never EATEN gingerbread, but I can tell you it smells great. And I do have some treats which are gingerbread.

There is a whole process to this kind of party, you know. Mommy #2 has been doing it for a long long time so for her it is almost second nature. This year, for the very first time, Mommy #1 helped. In fact, she MADE the gingerbread almost all by herself. Aunt T helped some. This is HUGE - a real rite of passage.

These are the unbuilt houses. Mommy made 8 of them. She will construct them with royal icing because otherwise kids are waiting up to 2 hours for them to dry and be capable of being decorated. She uses a mold she bought decades ago when she worked at Williams-Sonoma. It makes pieces for the houses more consistent and easier to build. She has made a house without the mold. She said to her that was fun but for less patient. . . probably not.

This is some of the candy she picked up. She tries to think in terms of traditional (butterscotch drops, peppermint sparkles, candy canes) and the fun (pixie sticks, nerds, and Peep trees). Someone always invents new ways to use a candy.

She also brings out the sprinkles. We always have a lot because Mommy and Aunts B&T tend to buy seasonal ones at end-of-season sales. Then we always have something usable. This is a Christmas variety which will go quickly, I think.

Just in case a house falls apart or an additional friend drops by, Mommy has premade kits that she bought at a Black Friday sale. She does NOT normally shop on BF but this year I had a pawdecure scheduled. To bide the time while I was getting beautiful, she went to Michaels. Voila! 

I usually have a pretty good idea of what I want to make come PARTY day. This is what I decided to make LAST YEAR

It so reminded me of TAHOE and some of the houses nestled in the mountains. Can't you just smell the PINE AIR and feel that crisp cold wind flowing off the snowy mountains?

Well, I bet you can guess what happened. Yes, try as I might THIS is what my house looked like once I finished DECORATING

It's all in good fun - eh? We can't all be like Martha Stewart and her team of bakers. It is the process and the sharing time with family and FRIENDS during the holidays.

And the occasional piece of candy or cookie that makes its way to MY neck of the woods.

This is how I spent LAST YEAR'S post-Gingerbread Party.

One can take just SO much fun.

Construction Zone! Watch for Falling CANDY!

Just a few of the houses that were decorated

Our house became a CONSTRUCTION zone over the weekend! It was so much fun I can HARDLY describe it. It all began a few weeks back when Mommy #2 started making GINGERBREAD like a crazy woman. The house smelled divine - I tell you! The aroma plus all of the festive decorations that my Aunties put up everywhere left no doubt that SOMETHING fun was afoot!

Then on Saturday afternoon PEOPLE started arriving - AND ANOTHER DOG named Pablo also came over. He is a HAVANESE so he is all white and furry. Like Molly, he has a couple of tan spots on his back to break up the tedium of being all white. We played a little, peed a little, and mostly begged A LOT for some of the yummy food that was EVERYWHERE!

All in all there were 16 people in addition to our family of 6 humans. It got loud at times; but it was loud with LAUGHTER and funny STORIES. By the time they all left, the 25 houses my Mommy #2 had baked were mostly gone.

Then came the clean-up. I tried to help. . . I really did. . . but the best I could offer - other than to EAT all of the fallen candy - was to keep Molly occupied and out from under foot.

Sometime in the afternoon everyone in the house was looking for us and calling our names. We never heard them . . .