Holidays Thanksgiving

Holidays #6 Thanksgiving Halftime

And The Winner Is…

In preparation for Thanksgiving next week, I am stocking up on our supplies for the Familys Annual Holiday Competition.

 

Whatever foods your Thanksgiving feast consists of, we are all sure of one thing- we eat ALOT!  After we fill our bellies, the men snag the couches and recliners, flip the game on and cuddle up for a long winters nap.

I don’t know what gets put in the womens food, but it seems like we are just given a B1 shot and are ready to conquer the world with our conversations and cleaning?  So, the ladies decided to create a friendly lil halftime competition…we build, decorate and present Gingerbread Houses for judging.  A great way to kick-off the Holiday season!

The kids normally team up together, Grandmas go solo with their artisitc abilities and couples will sometimes take it on as a team (that’s if the guys stop snoring).  We work with the Wilton Pre-Baked Gingerbread House Kits.  These range from $9-12 a kit.  Your local craft store or Costco carry them.  Watch for the 40% Sunday paper coupons for the craft spots- you can walk out with one for $6.

In building your foundation, we recommend soup cans to hold your iced gingerbread walls in place.  The kits provide an icing that you just add water or you can use store bought cake icing.

In order for your house to stay together, you must give it enough time to dry…thats when we go back in the living room for another slice of pie!

You can also begin your landscaping at the base of your house.  Sometimes the kits will have a foam base to work with, a cut out piece of cardboard will work too.  I just cover it with white icing, though Jeff got creative one year and made a pond in the front yard…showoff!

Mixing the icing just right will help with the decorations staying on the house.

Plan to cover up your table with one of those inexpensive holiday table covers.  After the homebuilders have created their masterpieces, you just wrap up the cover and place in trash- clean up made easy!  Use plastic cups for icing, so you can just trash those as well.

We are a football family on the West Coast, so we watch all three NFL games on Thanksgiving day, providing plenty of time for creative juices to flow, creating the most detailed houses.

When we are all finished with the houses, we place them on the living room table for display and judging.  If their are five houses, we make out numbers on paper from 1-5. Grandpas are our judges and they place their picks by the house.  All are tallied at the end and the winner is announced.  The prize?  Just having bragging rights alone is glorious thing in our household but we have also passed down a gingerbread man ornament.  On the back all the winners names are listed along with the year they won.

Everyone goes home a winner as they get to display their one of a kind gingerbread house in their kitchen for all to enjoy.  Happy Decorating!