Hey Y'all! I hope you are doing well this week! Today I thought I would post my "gingerbread story". Now some of you might be thinking "What in the world is she talking about?!". Let me explain. A few weeks ago I did the blog post about Easter Cookies. (See it Here) I told you that I LOVE to bake!! Whether it's cookies, brownies, cream puffs, eclairs, cake, etc. I love it! But, I also love entering a gingerbread project in the National Gingerbread House competition every year in November. Ok, On to the story:
So about 4 years ago I was in a home-school history group. There was about 7 kids so it wasn't too big but, we were getting ready to study Germany and of course gingerbread is partly from Germany. One of the suggested projects was to build a gingerbread house. (From the box) I remembered my parents and grandparents taking me to a place called the Grove Park Inn when I was about 4 years old. (I have a very good memory) Anyway, I was absolutely fascinated with all the pieces of art! So when it came time to do the gingerbread house project I told my Mom "Mom, why don't we take it to the competition??" she said "You mean take the box kit to the competition?" "No, like make it from scratch to the competition!". Now, I am not a competitive person unless it's gingerbread season. (Or I'm playing UNO with my Dad.) I think I shocked my Mom because of the fact that I am not competitive. But, she agreed to talk with the other Moms about it and if they said it was ok then it was ok with her! Now, you have to understand we had NO clue what we were doing! We didn't have a recipe for the gingerbread (unless we used the actual bread kind but that wouldn't work.) So were searched and searched for one until we came across one that we thought would work. Our theme was going to be "The Gift of Christmas" It was supposed to look like a box that had been punched open on Christmas morning with the Manger scene inside. We made multiple, multiple trips to Walmart for fondant, flour, sugar, twizzlers, food coloring, edible spray paint, etc.
We worked so hard on that thing! About two days a week to start with, three days when it got closer and then four days a week and finally on the last week before we had to take it we work from Monday-Friday. When we got that thing done we were SO proud of it!! Well... the MORNING we supposed to take it we got a phone call from the Mom's house it was staying at. She said that her daughter went downstairs to check on it as soon as she woke up and the roof had collapsed. OH NO! What were going to do?! We didn't have an extra roof laying around anywhere! So while the other daughter and myself were trying to keep from loosing our mind we went over to their house at 7:45 in the morning. We got over their and we were going crazy! We don't have gingerbread dough made, we don't have an extra roof, we have to leave between 12:00 - 1:00 in the afternoon and it was already 8:00! That means we have to make more dough, cut out the new roof, bake it, let it cool, put it on the project and cover it to make it look like the rest of the piece! Oh, and did I mention that my Mom and I hadn't packed? Needless to say we probably looked like chickens running around with our heads cut off! Haha!! But it all worked out and we were able to take it that afternoon. Whew! Of course, we didn't get anywhere in the competition but we had a BLAST doing it!
PART 2 COMING SOON......
So about 4 years ago I was in a home-school history group. There was about 7 kids so it wasn't too big but, we were getting ready to study Germany and of course gingerbread is partly from Germany. One of the suggested projects was to build a gingerbread house. (From the box) I remembered my parents and grandparents taking me to a place called the Grove Park Inn when I was about 4 years old. (I have a very good memory) Anyway, I was absolutely fascinated with all the pieces of art! So when it came time to do the gingerbread house project I told my Mom "Mom, why don't we take it to the competition??" she said "You mean take the box kit to the competition?" "No, like make it from scratch to the competition!". Now, I am not a competitive person unless it's gingerbread season. (Or I'm playing UNO with my Dad.) I think I shocked my Mom because of the fact that I am not competitive. But, she agreed to talk with the other Moms about it and if they said it was ok then it was ok with her! Now, you have to understand we had NO clue what we were doing! We didn't have a recipe for the gingerbread (unless we used the actual bread kind but that wouldn't work.) So were searched and searched for one until we came across one that we thought would work. Our theme was going to be "The Gift of Christmas" It was supposed to look like a box that had been punched open on Christmas morning with the Manger scene inside. We made multiple, multiple trips to Walmart for fondant, flour, sugar, twizzlers, food coloring, edible spray paint, etc.
We worked so hard on that thing! About two days a week to start with, three days when it got closer and then four days a week and finally on the last week before we had to take it we work from Monday-Friday. When we got that thing done we were SO proud of it!! Well... the MORNING we supposed to take it we got a phone call from the Mom's house it was staying at. She said that her daughter went downstairs to check on it as soon as she woke up and the roof had collapsed. OH NO! What were going to do?! We didn't have an extra roof laying around anywhere! So while the other daughter and myself were trying to keep from loosing our mind we went over to their house at 7:45 in the morning. We got over their and we were going crazy! We don't have gingerbread dough made, we don't have an extra roof, we have to leave between 12:00 - 1:00 in the afternoon and it was already 8:00! That means we have to make more dough, cut out the new roof, bake it, let it cool, put it on the project and cover it to make it look like the rest of the piece! Oh, and did I mention that my Mom and I hadn't packed? Needless to say we probably looked like chickens running around with our heads cut off! Haha!! But it all worked out and we were able to take it that afternoon. Whew! Of course, we didn't get anywhere in the competition but we had a BLAST doing it!
PART 2 COMING SOON......
