We had a great time decorating our traditional gingerbread houses. Some of my friends used the kits from IKEA, and really liked them. I was very tempted to pick up a couple myself. Especially since I felt like I was constantly struggling to just keep my head above water for this entire month. But I love the smell of the gingerbread baking, my kids love eating the gingerbread, and since I made up my own pattern for cute, tiny little houses, I only needed one batch of gingerbread anyway. So I went ahead and baked them myself.
I am also pleased to report that, thanks to the meringue powder my mother imported for me last year, the frosting actually kept the houses together the first time! I didn’t need to swear, stamp my feet, rebuild the houses six times each, or have the kids carefully hold them together for 20 minutes before they could even begin decorating them. They have never forgiven me for the year I hot glued them together. It worked fantastic, and I thought I was so brilliant, but I seriously underestimated how much the kids loved eating the actual house. So no more hot glue awesomeness for me. 🙂
We don’t go for architectural works of art around here. I have seen some amazing gingerbread houses in my lifetime. My friends and their kids make some gorgeous ones. I always think it would be so fun to make a really fancy one sometime. But we either lack the skills or the right equipment to make it happen. 
I cut out pieces to make chimneys and doors, but forgot to cut out doorways on the houses. Oops! And it was okay that one of the chimneys was damaged by a fire, not everyone chose that option.
My frosting was super stiff , which was why it held the hosues together so well. But for some reason, on Alexandra’s house it was almost too dry. Her house collapsed 3 times! No one else’s though. I am not sure what I did wrong, but every time it crashed she would just patiently begin again. The final crash completely destroyed the garden she had built, and she got sad about that. To cheer her up, we told her we could pretend all the frosting chunks were snow. She liked that idea very much.
Here are all the cute houses on display, all finished, and ready to be snacked on.
Some of them stayed beautiful and pristine until the end (Nick’s). Some of them were candy-less in about 2 days. 😉 The kids were clever though. Several of them popped candy through the windows, so when the roof was eaten, they had another stash of candy waiting to be consumed!