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Our first Gingerbread Castle- 3rd place!
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New tradition- build a gingerbread house for christmas?

jrpettibone by jrpettibone Talking(October 2006) (rank 127th)

It is that time again!  My daughters and I are begining the big gingerbread house for our city's annual Gingerbread House Contest.

This is a wonderful tradition to begin.  We use it as our big tradition project for November/ December.  We spend 3 weekends together on the project.

   Our first year we bought a pre-fab house.  Then I decided we needed to create our own!

1) First, we design our house.  My daughter always chooses a castle.  We use poster board to make the template.

2) The second weekend we bake the house.  We use our template to cut the dough. 

3) Lastly, we build the house and decorate.  This is the funnest part of the weekend.

The intention of the project is working together as a family.  It seems like the Holiday weekends become so busy.  It is wonderful to work together as a family and create a project.  My daughters are learning that big projects rarely happen in one weekend.  We have to take the time to plan ahead and work hard to complete something together.  We have to compromise with our ideas. 

There are many awesome sites to help your family get together.  There are many awesome books to help your family get started!

If you choose not to bake a gingerbread house together, choose another activity that requires everyone in the family to provide their imput!

 

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gingerb
December 2006 | gingerb
Gingerbread House Groups

I found out about several gingerbread house specific Yahoo Groups when I visited www.ultimategingerbread.com

Gingerbreadtown
< 5 Members, Archives: Membership required
Founded: Dec 3, 2006
A place for Gingerbread house Pics and tips for beginers to advanced Note: this group is monitored for spam, and mean spirited or off topic comments, either will get you bounced other than that just have fun a post tons of pics! love to see kids work too!
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Gingerbreadtown/

justgingerbreadhouses
< 5 Members, Archives: Membership required
Founded: Dec 5, 2006
This group is for people who want to share recipes, patterns, design ideas, pictures, links and tips for making gingerbread houses. The emphasis is on construction and decoration technique, not chat. Off topic discussion is discouraged. Your moderator is a very enthusiastic fan of gingerbread who has been making houses for only a few years. I may not be able to answer many technical questions. However, I enjoy researching answers and I will try to help if I can.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/justgingerbreadhouses/

GingerbreadCollectors
43 Members, Archives: Membership required
Founded: Jul 28, 2002
You must be a Gingerbread Lover like me! If you make gingerbread cookie houses or collect gingerbread boys, girls, houses -- anything from afghans to ornaments, be a part of this group! We can share our love of these sweet Christmas treats!
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GingerbreadCollectors/

gingerbreadhousebaking
531 Members, Archives: Membership required
Founded: Apr 6, 2001
Gingerbread House Baking, Creating and Tips: E-Mail with other Gingerbread House makers and get tips, recipes, how-to, questions, general help! Exchange ideas - what works and what doesn't. Gingerbread house building is a great family tradition. Check out our e-mail group for gingerbread house building, creating, tips and tricks.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gingerbreadhousebaking/

gingerbreadhouses
144 Members, Archives: Public
Founded: Aug 21, 2000
Join our club to share baking, assembling and decorating ideas for gingerbread houses. Gingerbread houses make great Christmas gifts. Start a fun new family tradition!
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gingerbreadhouses/



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carol13
November 2006 | carol13
Family Time

Our family spend time together whether it would be cleaning our home, watching T.V., reading scriptures or playing games.  Our church teaches us to have our family home evening every Monday night.  That's the time we put aside to have our family together, whether it would be playing games, reading scriptures, watching church DVD or just talking about our goals in life.  Sunday we put aside as our Sabbath Day.  We go to church in the morning then we spend the rest of the afternoon just be together as family.  My husband and I make sure our children get all the attention they need or require in life.  They are not toddlers anymore, but we feel they still need our attention.  It feels good to have family time together, both my husband and I feel that we are fulfulling our children need just by spending time with them.  It's nice to have a family together.  A family plays together, stays forever (something life that, I think).  You know what I mean.  Spend time with your children, make time for them, and you will see that they will appreciate you more. 



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MumKim
October 2006 | MumKim
great advice

Great advice, love the photo. If you included some links to some gingerbread sites it would be even better.

Sounds like a lot of fun. I can't wait until my child is old enough to do this kind of thing.



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Jessgore
5.00 (Excellent) | October 2006 | Jessgore
Sounds like fun...
I might try that with Camille this year... She likes cooking.. And this will keep her intereted I am sure.. Thanks for the tip...


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Shayna
5.00 (Excellent) | October 2006 | Shayna
Build a House
We did this last year but only because a friend invited us over.  She had baked all the house peices and cut them out.   She had tons of bowls of candies and frosting all ready to go and the construction began!   It was a lot of fun but I don't know if I'd be able to bake the big slabs and cut them out successfully.  Definitely a lot of fun.  We took pictures also to help preserve the memory :)


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dolphins30
October 2006 | dolphins30
working together
When ever myself or my partner cooks things like cakes or cookies etc, we always include our miss3.7 as she thouroughly enjoys it.


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exquisite-flower
5.00 (Excellent) | October 2006 | exquisite-flower
I would love to try this
Is there a 'Gingerbread House Building for Dummies' guide?  I think such a project would require me to have detailed instructions!
Peace
EF.x 


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      jrpettibone
5.00 (Excellent) | October 2006 | jrpettibone
I would love to try this

I learned after my first one that it all has to do with your frosting.  My first pre-made house fell down.  I learned quickly that you had to have good frosting!

I can lead you to some books and sites if you are interested.  I tend to get "big" rather than small..:(

 



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           exquisite-flower
November 2006 | exquisite-flower
I would love to try this
sites would be marvellous please?
Ooooh!  This is such a great idea and something E would love to do, beside which we have recently made a couple of friends in the area and I am sure they may be interested to assist too.
Peace
EF.x 


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