gingerbread houses!

We decorated our gingerbread houses on Sunday, and each year it's getting better and better. We used orange juice cartons cut down to Lio and Paloma's specifications, and I found a great recipe for the icing, which was super fluffy and dried perfectly. Graham crackers fit the dimensions of our houses, and bowls and bowls of candy were ready for decorating.

Lio and Paloma each had their own icing bag and their own houses, and were able to decide exactly which piece of candy went where. Lio was most interested in getting done so he could eat some of the candy, while Paloma was really meticulous and took her time! (The candy we used was soooooo stale - left over from last Christmas and even the Halloween before that, so they weren't even that interested in eating while creating! I promised some "fresh" treats when we finished.)

They did a really great job! They even made really cute snowmen out of marshmallows. I'm hoping to get some cute pictures of them with the finished houses for Christmas cards this year. We'll see how that goes!

Here's the icing recipe in case you need one. It truly is a great one!

Royal Icing for Gingerbread Houses:

1 lb. powdered sugar
1/2 tsp. cream of tartar
3 egg whites (room temp.), unbeaten

Beat on low speed until all ingredients are well blended, then beat on high speed until light and fluffy.