Gingerbread Fiasco

The girls and I were in the holiday spirit the other day and decided to make a Gingerbread House. I even researched making the gingerbread myself and downloaded templates for the house from Martha Stewart.com. But then I saw one of those Wilton boxed sets at Michael's that made it all look too easy. It came complete with the frosting, candies, and frame for the house. What I really wanted to accomplish was for the girls to have fun, so I decided to buy the set and home we went to get started.

The girls were giddy with excitement and could hardly wait for me to get the frosting mixed up. I took all the pieces out of the box and began assembling. Good thing Daddy came home from work RIGHT THEN, because building this thing was harder than it looked. It took all four of our hands! The roof kept sliding off the top and the sides caving in. We finally got it to the point that the girls could start decorating, but only after three attempts and a lot of laughing and cursing at the thing. Once Matt's hands were free of holding the thing he opened a bottle of wine and poured me a glass. He knew my expectations of how this one was going to turn out might need a little softening up!

The girls had so much fun putting the gum drops, M&M's, licorice, and gummy bears all over. I piped roof shingles, a door, windows and some icicles with the frosting. As I looked over the finished product I was surprised at how cute it turned out when we had started out so discombobulated! Megan had even taken a green Sunkist gummy and a red gumdrop and made a wreath for the front door. My favorite part of the whole thing was a yellow candy I saw on the roof. Someone (I think it was Molly) had taken a BITE out of it and then put it on the house! Too cute.

Okay - so you would think that would be story enough to post, right?! But ours has a twist to the ending. That night, I left the Gingerbread house on the counter in the kitchen. Duke, our black lab, sleeps in the kitchen at night. He is usually very good and goes right to sleep on his bed. No barking, no whining, no getting into anything. But this night he was a crazy dog! He was so hyper and continually whined to be let out. So after about an hour of telling him to be quiet, I got up and let him out. I couldn't for the life of me figure out what had gotten into him. The next morning, by the light of day, I discovered what had gotten into Duke! Frosting, candy, and gingerbread - that's what! EVERY SINGLE piece of candy had been eaten off the rooftops and the frosting shingles licked clean. There was even a big bite taken out of the roof right above the door. I am sad to say, I didn't get any pictures of the destruction!

The girls were pretty upset. Even today, as I am writing this post, Molly looked over my shoulder and saw the pictures as I was uploading them. She said to me "Remember when Duke at that house, Mom!? I SO MAD my dog that day, Mom!"

Yes Molly, I remember. I had to laugh though. I thought it quite a fitting end to the fiasco that had been Gingerbread House '07. Here's hoping construction in '08 goes smoother!

PS - Joanna, this story reminds me of when you got your first pair of "high heels" and you were so proud you sat down to write a diary entry about them. When you were finished writing however, you looked down to discover your lab Katrina had chewed them to pieces...I don't even think you got to wear them once! Dogs - gotta love 'em!