Gingerbread and Duct Tape

Today was the annual gingerbread house making party. Every year, since I was quite small, my mom’s sister has come over and she, mom, and whatever kids are around make a gingerbread house. Over the years we have graduated to more than one house, one for kiddies and one for grown-ups (seven kids in the family, ranging from 26 to 4 years of age). We have had many famous creations over the years. There was the nut (or candy) house – so called because we filled it with nuts and candy as we just couldn’t get one side of roof to say on. Then there was the year our house had a really neat water-spout, made out of the pencil we needed to prop one end of the roof up. And then there was the first year we put soup cans inside to prop the walls up…

Pre-fab houses you say, well… we do use those… for the kids. But for some reason the grown up one always ends up still being made from scratch (possibly because we often do them in uncoventional shapes, like the sleigh… or this years ski chalet).

For some reason they don’t make pre-fab A-frame ski chalets…

Naturally, we wondered what special engineering feat this year’s model would require. We tried the icing (ever hopeful that one year it will actual work)

Why do we even bother…

and cans (this time of peas and corn),

the Habitant ended up being too wide and so was replaced with corn

but in the end it was the duct tape which made this years project special.

Yep, we duct taped the sucker together (including duct taping one end to the can holding it up). Duct taped it together and then covered the duct tape with icing and decorated as usual.

I think I feel a new tradition coming on.

This is George… no duct tape was used in the making of George… 3 different colours of Sharpie…but no duct tape