A Gingerbread Farm Masterpiece

Our North Pole gingerbread farm is finished. I have to say I am pretty excited about the way it turned out. However, I'm not sure making gingerbread is going to be an annual tradition for our family ... it takes a lot of effort. I do, however, have fond memories of making gingerbread houses with my mom and siblings when I was younger. Here I am with my two older sisters.


Rog and I bought some 3D gingerbread cookie cutters - snowman, tree, reindeer and sleigh - from Williams Sonoma after Christmas a couple of years ago. I didn't get around to making them last year but I was determined to create them this year. I found a barn on the Internet and thought it would be perfect to make a reindeer farm. I started with making, cutting out and baking the gingerbread dough on Friday night. It took a lot longer than I anticipated, but it was fun to see the shapes come together.





Our weekend was pretty full so we didn't have a chance to pick up the appropriate candy for construction. I had Rog pick some up on his way home from work tonight. Little did I know that my instructions of "get a variety" would transform into "pick up one of every kind of candy they have." Rog was definitely thorough in his selection. And when he showed the "building materials" to Sarah, she was super, super excited. Unfortunately, Sarah had to go to bed before we got to work. Maybe I'll make a small graham cracker house with frosting and candies with her later this week...


We had the Truscotts and Cyndi over for dinner and invited them to stay and have "FHE" with us. Unfortunately the Truscotts couldn't stay, but Cyndi was game for our hair-brained gingerbread-farm-making idea. Sarah was already in bed and Will fell asleep to the sounds of the hand mixer so FHE turned into home teaching (Rog is Cyndi's home teacher). I was super impressed with Cyndi's know-how of gingerbread construction. (How does Cyndi know EVERYTHING?) She created the gumdrop path, put up most of the "Christmas lights" and made sure the reindeer had food.


Rog pulled out his "roofer" skills and built the roof. He let Cyndi and I help with the shingles, but I think his side of the barn looks more professionally done.


I have to say, I am pretty proud of the finished product. My claim to fame is the sleigh. I pretty much let Rog and Cyndi do most of the handiwork. I'm totally impressed with their gingerbread construction skills. Napoleon would be proud too.




Thanks again for humoring us Cyndi. We had a blast!