Saying Goodbye...

to Christmas 2010, that is! I forgot to take pics of all my decorations and lights and displays this year, like so many other years before. I can't believe I did it again!

But, before throwing out the stale Gingerbread house that Marissa and I worked so hard on, I actually remembered to take pics.

Let me set the stage for you... and include some pics of the building of the Gingerbread House 2010... *yeah... you know that's not gonna happen... lost the external hard drive where they were all stored... BOO!!!*

We had purchased a kit last year at the "after" Christmas sales. I will never do this again. Even though we saved a lot of money on it (75%), it SO was not worth it.

For one, Marissa likes to eat the gingerbread, the candy, AND the icing.

Ew... the icing was almost as hard as a rock. EVEN in an air-tight bag. Super gross. I worked it, too. I kneaded it with my warm hands, soaked the bag in warm and hot water, microwaved it... everything I possibly could, to no avail.

The gingerbread was hard. Ok... that's a given, because we all know in those kits... they're hard anyway. Like cardboard. (But hey! it still smelled good!)

The candy? Nah... I wasn't even going to try it...

But yeah... we put it together anyway. (If you notice some clear-ish glue... keep your comments to yourself and don't judge. Heck ya! I used the hot glue gun! It wouldn't stay up, otherwise...)

I threw together some icing... Well... um... Marissa was getting impatient and wanted to do it RIGHT NOW! (She'd already been waiting while I tried to soften the kit's icing.) So... I opened a can of vanilla Betty Crocker stuff. (Yes... I keep some in my cabinet - I love "instant cookies". What are these?, you ask? Graham crackers with frosting inside. Yum!)

Put some in a piping bag with a #3 tip and let her at it.

That didn't last long... Icing was coming out of the bag opening and not through the tip. Will kids ever listen? And so... Mama took control. I iced, and she put the candy on.

Where was Daddy through all of it? Uh... taking pictures (that got lost in the hard drive... when it crashed the week before Christmas).

Zooming into today. Today, it was the last thing sitting out... a reminder of Christmas Past except for the wrapping paper still in the dining room, waiting to finish wrapping presents that still need to be shipped up North. And so... I thought it appropriate to give it a little boost into the trash can. It was completely inedible, stale, and beginning to collect dust.

I grabbed a couple of shots, turning it this way and that, then off-loaded it into the waste can outside... Adios! Until next year... when we might... YES! we just might... make our own next year. No more nasty-tasting gingerbread houses for us!



Hoping your day is as sweet and sunny as this "Sun" is!