Gingerbread houses, fun tradition

I buy each of the girls a gingerbread house kit every year to make themselves. I buy the kind that has the pre-made gingerbread but the girls need to mix the icing and assemble the house themselves. Sometimes they can get their houses to stand up, sometimes they have a cave-in and require some assistance (and thicker icing) from mom.

The girls have been doing these kits for several years and this year's kit has become their new favorite one. It was made by Wilton and was actually one of the cheapest options I found (without a doorbuster sale) this year.

L. made this one and G. opted to make the mini village kit, also by Wilton.

So it was with much entertainment that I watched my co-worker, Meredith Goad, build her gingerbread houses at the office for a story published in today's paper with a review of which gingerbread house kit she liked best.

A gingerbread house kit review: Soup to Nuts: Kitting around

After she was done building them all I told her my kids built the Wilton's kit this year and declared it their favorite. It seems she and several of my other co-workers liked that kit best too.

(Check out the video and the comments from the 'judges.' The whole story is a great review if you're thinking about giving a kit a-go this year with your family.)

Even though we do kits every year, I very much appreciate the creativity - and time - people spend making their own gingerbread to make these houses. My kids attended a program at the Museums of Old York to learn about the history of the architecture in the village, which included a walking tour. Then all the kids were given a gingerbread house in one of the architectural styles to decorate. The girls thought the whole program at the museum was great fun.

Both girls opted for the colonial style homes.

All the gingerbread houses the girls have made this year are now sitting on a table at home awaiting some additional decorations (we are decorating-challenged this year, primarily due to concerns about the foster dog and cats as well as being time-challenged). But I have to say that those colonial gingerbread houses from Old York, which I know were homemade, smell wonderful. The store bought kits really don't have the strong spiced smells the homemade variety does. And since we don't have any evergreen scent around the house (yet), it's feeling a lot more like Christmas is coming now.

And just in case you were wondering, yes, the chickens will be getting their feast of gingerbread after Christmas like they do every year.