It's a Marshmallow World for this Gingerbread House

My "Gingerbread" House., originally uploaded by razzieswirl.

Every year we get a group of people together and make "gingerbread" houses. I use quotations because as you can see it's not really gingerbread, it's graham cracker. I'm not particularly fond of gingerbread, not that it matters in the case of gingerbread houses because you generally don't eat them (at least in our house), the sugar glue taste pretty god awful. 

This year we had a beautiful dinner party for our dear friend Skylers birthday, and just like last year, this year for his birthday we made gingerbread houses. Last year I spent over $50 on candy (I know, I know, whoa), so this year I requested everyone bring two bags of candy, and I only ended up spending about $7-$12 on candy. Skyler is one of those people who will not, no matter how I fight, partake in any crafty activity. He will not carve pumpkins, he will dye Easter eggs (okay I convinced him to do Easter eggs once, and they were less than "appropriate" but that's a story for another day). I can, however, get him to make gingerbread houses. Why? I don't rightly know, perhaps it's because if you can make a structure that doesn't cave in on itself, all you really need to do is glue a bunch of candy to the outside and viola! you have a house. Most houses look likes piles of candy (at least in our house), so there is no anxiety about having to be toooooo creative (like carving a pumpkin is ). But he likes it, and I'll take anything I can get him to do with me that's crafty! It was overall a lovely and extremely fun night. We ate delicious food, had fun gluing candy to graham cracker shacks and did a little dancing, woot! woot!

The picture above is my "gingerbread" house. I feel that the yard is just as important as the house itself. Just think, when you drive by a house with a flat, square, brown yard, you're generally less than impressed. But my house boasts a marshmallow world, a yard of fluff and white, a red brick path that greets you with large red lanterns, a yard flanked by towering green gumdrop trees and a tiny cookie shack out front adorned with a little green wreath. I know if I were sitting in front of a cozy little fire in my "gingerbread" house I would greatly enjoy the lovely view from my little windows. I can just hear Dean Martin crooning "It's a marshmallow world in the winter. . . " can't you? 

I am also posting all the other houses created here on Saturday night. They make up a pretty fine neighborhood. And one of the things I love about gingerbread houses, for the same reason I probably love carving pumpkins, it's most fun to see how unique each house is. Everyone has their own idea of structure and decoration, it's amazing to see what everyone does. 

This post is my entry in the YumSugar Gingerbread food blogging event as well. I'm so looking forward to what other people are going to be submitting for this event to. Check out YumSugar and the gingerbread event at : http://yumsugar.com/824036

And if you haven't made your own gingerbread houses yet, I hope this event, or my post will inspire you to sit down with some of your loved ones and create away!

Happy Holidays!