A little hot glue and a whole lotta sweet stuff!

Remember "Find Waldo"? This is "Find the Gingerbread House."

Anne, Dave, Adam and Jacob, Carol, Gene and Tamsyn, and Holly, Rich, Nicholas and friend Jack, came to the Tree House for a traditional night of gingerbread house assembly and decorating. We also ate pizza and lasagna, and watched Elf. It was the gathering we had been anticipating for months; fun, relaxed, creative and good.

I guess we are old pros by now. Every year I have pretended we were novices, but I think this is our 6th annual event, so we are definitely experienced. It was by the second year that we realized royal frosting is a slow and inefficient glue, and so we brought forth the hot glue. Special recognition to Adam: He stuck the giant gingerbread man on the house front with aforementioned royal frosting. We do not eat the creation. We have dye issues, and also creative hands are not always clean hands. Yes, some gumballs and a number of Kisses did find their ways to mouths, but mostly this is an aesthetic experience. It was Tamsyn's first ever gingerbread house, and alas, most recent accounts are that her dogs, Pippin and Jasper, ate one side of their ginger house. Tragic. When they do survive curious hands and pets, they fill the house with a spicy fragrance that is warm and homey.