gingerbread houses 2014

As a follow up post to my Gingerbread House Plans for this year... here are the results.

I don't have pictures of everyone's houses but I am including a video of a few that I am not real sure how my camera or me did it.  But it is kinda of funny and you get to hear me sing a tid bit of a Beatles song.  How embarrassing is that?  Hey.. if you can't laugh at yourself... who can you laugh at?

And this one is mine.  Looks like my log cabin plan turned out OK huh?

My secret weapon of a using a sifter and powdered sugar to top it all off was a hit!

This video sounds a bit like Santa's workshop.  I hear Shaun talking about me, saying my name in the background a couple of times :)

And HERE is my post about the plans for this year's house.

gingerbread house ideas

I know many of you are just dying to know of my plans for my gingerbread house this year.  Well... I am not hiding my thoughts this time or at least not all of them.  My house plans are usually top secret.  This year I am going to try my best to make my house a log cabin.  Keeping it simple on the actual decorations and concentrating more on the look of the actual house.  I am going to try and tone down the gaudy and tone up the structure.  We will see what happens.  

I have turned to library books on the subject and pictures on pinterest for ideas.  I have bought my building supplies and hopefully the icing will be extra sticky!  I also want to color some green for my trees made on sugar cones and plan to make a final dusting with powdered sugar when everything is in place.  I'm pretty excited!

Want to see more??

2013 Gingerbread House Plans

2012 Gingerbread House Plans

2013 Results

Gingerbread House Making 101

Pretty pictures from years past

More pretty pictures from 2008

Scenes from Christmas Eve

We have a tradition with Shaun's side of the family of cooking the meat for Christmas day on Christmas Eve.  Shaun fires up the big smoker in the barn next door, I always include a couple of chickens for future use and most of the time have sweet potatoes to cook, and a few friends also bring their holiday meats to cook.  Since smoking meat takes several hours we get in some really good fellowship with each other and friends stopping by.  There's always lots of laughs.  Uncle Randy brings shrimp for all of us and this year Jeff brought chicken wings with homemade sauce for us to enjoy.  So we eat good during the whole cooking process.  It has turned out to be a tradition that I really look forward to.  I think this was our sixth year.  It was pretty cold out and the wind was cutting in from the north so Shaun and Gary hung tarps on both entrances to the old tobacco barn which cut the cold considerably in the old airish barn.  I really enjoy it and am thankful I have good family.

A Brand New Year

Happy New Year to all!!!

New Year's Day is one of my favorite days of the year.  It's the start of a new year of course but also I always make my traditional food for the day and somehow folks always show up to get their yearly dose of luck!  My menu always includes the following:

Ham - Pork symbolizes rooting into the new year (chicken is not to be eaten on new year's day, it symbolizes going backward to the old year because of chickens scratching backward... pigs root forward... get it?)  this year we are having honey ham with pineapple

Black Eyed Peas - for luck of course!  I cook mine with hog something or other usually a piece of something we have cooked on the smoker or country ham... something with flavor.

Cabbage - symbolizing good fortune or wealth.  I don't know about the wealth part but I eat it anyway.  I make my cabbage in the crock pot with broth and caraway seeds.

Cinnamon Apples - I usually open up canned apples either grocery store bought or canned by me, add some brown sugar and a tiny handful of red hots.  This symbolizes "red hot love" and sweetness for the year and I made it up.  Either way, apples go good with the meal.

Cornbread - So that our home will not know hunger.  Sounds good doesn't it.  Bread is a traditional gift of a new home for folks along with wine so the new house never knows hunger or thirst.

Pie - In case you didn't get enough to eat. 

I am getting hungry thinking about the smells of my kitchen on new year's day. 

I also read another superstition that says:  Using a knife during the first days of the New Year "cuts off" all the good luck for the coming year.   And that all knives must be put away.  I wonder if this means before or after you eat the black eyed peas?!?!  This one is a Chinese tradition.  I'm not Chinese but I may try this one just for fun.  That means that I'll have to chop my cabbage and onion early and make the pie and cut it early.... use forks to cut the ham... sounds like too much trouble to me.  I think I will start the knife tradition after my black eyed peas are eaten. 

What are some of your traditions and superstitions associated with the new year??










These are journals that I made for my guests a few years back.  So easy to do.... HERE.

Let the clean up begin

 



I'm not one of those folks who leaves their Christmas décor up until February.  I strongly believe in leaving the old year in the old year and not bringing any of that into the New Year.  I spend the last days of every year dusting, sweeping, cleaning and putting up Christmas.  Actually, this morning I set a goal and prayed to stay focused on my task at hand.  I figured with a small bit of organized planning I could have my decorations down in less than two hours.  As of two hours later I have everything up and in new labeled boxes and in the attic except for the main tree.  I only lack taking the lights off and the tree down which won't take but a few minutes.  Hey... I got hungry and I need to finish off the Christmas ham and grape salad too!  I started to take pictures to show you my mess but didn't want to loose focus. 

Now comes an afternoon of putting things back where they go and possibly a basement straightening.  That has got to be done before the end of the year too.  I am a tad superstitious at the end of the year.  I don't want that pile of garage sale items dropped as I came in the house and cardboard boxes for packaging shelves left sitting there when 2014 rolls in for fear that I will use this spot the whole year as a catch-all.  Which is one of my resolutions... to de-use that spot.  I wind up leaving things sitting there for eternity. 

One year, my resolution was to break my habit of using my oven as storage for pots and pans.  I successfully kept that resolution and know I can keep this one.  It's just got to be cleaned up first.  Blah scrumbug!  Luckily I have a few days between work to get it all done and thankfully the energy to do it.  There's a lot of sick going around... I know.. I had the stomach bug a couple of weeks ago and it liked to did me in! 

I will share a favorite blog of mine that I will be using for re-decorating after the holidays.  She and I have similar taste in home décor anyway.  Here's her home pictures and blog... RootsandFeathers.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Gingerbread Houses

Wow y'all... I would like to say first off that this is my 500th post! 

Dang I've had a lot to say over the last four years! 

 

Anywho... we had just the best time decorating our gingerbread houses this year!  There were fourteen houses decorated in all and I hate to say that I don't know what I was thinking that day because I did not get a picture of every one's houses.  Poo.  I was looking back through pictures and thought "wait... where's Kristen's... and Jessica's?"  Oh well.  We had so much fun and had tons of construction supplies to decorate with.  Here are some pics of the process and results.

 

AND... Chocolate Explosion results!  This house smells amazing.



2013 Gingerbread House Plans

Each year my family gets together to decorate gingerbread houses.  My Mom and Dad are the construction crew and the grandchildren, myself, a couple of sisters and aunts are the decorators.

A couple of years ago, we decided that this would be our Thanksgiving afternoon craft.  You know, when the boys are all passed out from the huge meal and there's only football on TV. 

 

We all bring candy supplies and have a grand ole time.  Some of us... me mainly.... feel better if they have a plan in mind before the decorating begins.  This year I came up with two themes for myself .  I decided to go with Chocolate Explosion!  I am so excited!  I have Coco Puffs, mini Snickers, mini Reeses, a chocolate Santa.  Here are my inspiration pages and pictures. 

 

 

 

I love all the inspiration that can be found in books and online.  Crazy ideas!  Mine seems to always end up sloppy but it's all so much fun.  I will print out  my inspiration page to carry along with me so I don't get sidetracked.  Here's my inspiration and house plans from last year.



Gingerbread Houses - The Making

My Mother and Father have quite the construction business going on this time of year!  I decided this year to show a few "behind the scenes" pictures of my Mom putting the cut out gingerbread houses together.  For starters, at this point, my Father long ago cut out wooden circle disks for the houses to rest on and has traced and cut out all of the pieces of foam core board for the walls and roofs of the little houses.  Maybe next year I will catch him in the act for pictures of that process!

Mom decided to use foam core board because she is a genius.  We used to put together graham crackers with thick royal icing as glue which led to much messier houses than we have now.  But if that is all you've got to work with, by all means, get to it!

First Mom wraps each wooden platform with aluminum foil so we can safely use them again and again.  Then she uses a glue gun to put the houses together.  First the walls, then the roof and finally she glues each one down on the aluminum foil.  Her next step will be to cover up the glued edges with icing on each house!  Wow!  That Mother of mine!  This year she made sixteen houses for us!  It seems each year we have more family wanting to join in on the fun and that's A-OK with us!  Nice work Mom!  Love you!

 This is their pattern for two different size houses.  Top secret stuff!

 

 

The disks before foil.

 

Those hands have spanked my bottom and hugged my neck a bunch y'all!

Taped down for security purposes.

 

 

Each house has six pieces... obviously.

 

 

 

So now you see we ain't kiddin around when it comes to this particular tradition.  And my house plans for this year ain't kiddin around either.  Stay Tuned!