A Few Of My Favourite Things

We dedicate this post to our dear Auntie Lana, our most loyal reader, who is dealing with some significant health challenges right now. We love you.❤️

As Christmas approaches I start looking forward to my two favourite things, and perhaps they’re not what you might expect. No, they’re not shopping and Christmas carols, but rather, making a gingerbread village and gift wrapping. While the gift wrapping waits until closer to the big day, work on the gingerbread village starts early…

In the Beginning

One of our family Christmas traditions is making gingerbread houses. We started this when our kids were young and carried it on with grand kids. I have so many happy memories of this activity with our family, and in the process I discovered that I quite liked building gingerbread houses myself. I may or may not have a teensy bit of a reputation of being a little too “helpful” when it came to the kids building their houses.😂 Nevertheless, when we gather as a family at Christmas, gingerbread houses are always on the agenda.

I’m not necessarily great at the actual building of the gingerbread houses. Square is definitely a relative term when it comes to the walls, but the decorating, now that is my jam, even though serious gingerbread artists (which I learned is the proper term from the Food Network😂) would have a hard time keeping a straight face if they saw my creations. Sadly or luckily, depending on your perspective, there is no photographic evidence of my early attempts.

Go Big Or Go Home

This year, knowing that we would be home for Christmas I decided that a giant gingerbread village would be the thing to do. I can’t really say where this idea came from, but before I knew it, I had purchased nine gingerbread kits that would yield six large houses and 15 tiny houses. The “seemed like a good idea at the time” motto definitely applies here. But I was nothing if not determined at this point and so it was onward and upward.

After more than a few hours scrolling Pinterest and Instagram for ideas, I was bursting with energy and enthusiasm as I made a trip to Bulk Barn to stock up on decorating supplies. I was a bit shaken when I walked out of the store $100 poorer, but this was going to be an epic gingerbread village. At least that’s what I told myself (and my husband when he saw the Visa bill). Not only did I have multiple types of candy, but I had sprinkles, sparkles, pretzels, cookies and even shredded wheat cereal. I was ready to go!

Royal Icing Is Your Friend

If I was going to get through this with my sanity intact I recognized that organization was going to be key. So I carefully laid out all the supplies and began methodically decorating and assembling the houses. I went with the big ones first and things went reasonably well with only the occasional wall collapsing and candy falling off – nothing that royal icing or a glue gun couldn’t fix. A few days later the big houses were ready to go.

On to the tiny houses and, after a promising start, things quickly went downhill. Sadly, order was replaced with chaos. This is perhaps understandable when you consider there were roughly 60 little walls and roofs of all different shapes and sizes to fit together. At least that’s what I told myself. And the directions on the package made it seem so simple. You just add a few candies here and some sprinkles there and you have a masterpiece. Ha! Many, many hours later, despite one house looking like a drunk guy wearing glasses, the tiny houses were done.

Ready for My Close Up

No one was happier than I when all the houses were done, with my husband being a close second, as I cleaned up the mess and he could reclaim our dining room from a being a craft studio back to an actual dining room. But wait! Once I assembled all the houses in one spot, I realized that I didn’t have a space large enough to display them all together, so one giant village quickly became two.

Out came the cotton batting, fake snow and fairy lights and the finish line was in sight. So after much fiddling and adjusting, my village came to life, and🎵It’s Beginning a Lot Like Christmas 🎵

Can I convey my sense of pride and relief? Probably not, but I have already documented both the process, and suggestions for next year’s effort. I may not be striving for perfection but I will continue to rise to this creative challenge for the foreseeable future. Cheers to next year!

This will be our last post before Christmas, but never fear the Sisterhood will be back in January rested and raring to go! Until then Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!🎄🎅🏻 🥳