The Nellie Spot

Every year, Aaron & Allyn Elleman host the Annual Gingerbread House Party. There are only 3 rules:
1) Everything must be edible
2) Not pre-making of anything (except to bake the gingerbread if you actually use gingerbread)
3) Build the house in the time frame alloted (usually about an hour or so)

Our competition is usually really steep. There's a custom home builder in the group, and he and his wife always win. In 5 years of attending (100% attendance, I might add), we've placed no higher than 3rd. That would be the first year, and this year. The first year, we went with your typical house, using graham crackers for the walls and roof. We covered it with icing and gumdrops...very Martha Stewart. We even passed the "earthquake test" that year, which is the shaking of the pan/box/platter the house was built on until it utterly collapses. It's like holding onto the bull for 8 seconds.

In the following years, we went with a similar theme: standard house. All the while, we're getting beat down by the super creative, out-of-the-box gingerbread house builders. Last year, we were so mad about losing that we decided to pull out the Jesus factor. That's right! We did a gingerbread manager scene, complete with Little People Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus. And we STILL lost!! I mean, do these people hate Jesus and Christmas? Apparently they do! Who has the nerve to say that Jesus doesn't win the competition? Sinners.

So this year, Allison got really excited about finding a gingerbread house design in a magazine. I, on the other hand, have stopped trying to compete with the infedels. But Allison insisted we would win (or at least place in the top 3), so I trudged along with the idea. This year, we actually made our own gingerbread and homemade icing. Where our other houses had been Martha Stewart-ish, this was straight up Martha's Vineyard, complete with Nestlé Tollhouse Swirled Morsels for side shingles and Frosted MiniChex for roofing shingles. We, however, did overlook a very important thing: frame support. You'll notice in the pictures above that there are hands holding the house together. That's because we didn't have anything INSIDE the house supporting the walls and roof. So, the only way for us to get a picture of it intact was to hold it. Needless to say, we didn't win the earthquake test this year...but we did place 3rd! Reagan McKinney won for first place...she did Cinderella's Castle from Disneyworld! She used 3 large gingerbread cakes for the round body part, and upside down iced icecream cones for the spires. There's even a moat (with Goldfish) and some Disney characters in front. One guy did a small snowman using marshmellows. He then rigged a glass fishbowl upside down with fake snow inside and a can of compressed air. It made it into a working snowglobe! It looked horrible, but the concept was pretty amazing!

After the winners were announced, we (meaning everyone's kids) got a visit from Santa Claus! Finley Robinson had his college roommate in town for the weekend, and got him to come to the party for fun (or obligation). Bart usually dresses as Santa (this is the snowglobe guy), but somehow coaxed Finley's friend into beign Santa. All the families took turns posing for pictures while most of the kids cried because that's what kids do on Santa's lap...they cry.