Holiday Spirit, Competitive Spirit!

For years and years we have been decorating a gingerbread house as part of our Christmas holiday tradition. I can't remember exactly when we started but it definitely goes as far back as when our nephew Zak turned 13 (and he is now in his 30's). After we decorated our masterpiece that year, Zak thought it would be fun if we stood on our balcony and chucked big rocks at it. We thought that was an odd way to celebrate but we placed the house on the grass in the backyard, gathered some rocks and headed upstairs. It made a spectacular crash!

Fast forward to the past few years and we have gotten better with a piping bag and more creative with our building materials. 2011 was the introduction of water elements, see HERE. 

2014 was all about the Grinch (by Andrew and Melissa) and using sugar cones for trees and dancers (our idea):

2015 showcased Hometown USA with a doghouse made of candy bones (made by us) and Aliens and a spaceship that crashed into a house in the desert (by Andrew and Melissa):

Clearly if this was a competition, our house would LOSE each and every year, both on lack of original theme and sketchy technique (although we were quite proud of our river in 2011 and this year's working chimney, made from a marshmallow and torched for heightened realism).

This year's festivities ended with lively banter and considerable trash talk as we felt our dog bone - dog house warranted extra points.

Bottom line, we eventually and grudgingly bowed to the creativity of the Alien house.

And when I say grudgingly, I mean we texted photos to relatives in TWO different states to vote on BEST HOUSE and they both confirmed that we placed 2nd.

Regardless, the four of us have stepped up our game over the past four years that we have frosted together and I don't know if it was the rush of sampling too many gum drops or the bottle of wine with dinner but we think we are ready to enter an actual contest next year.

To that end, we checked out the local gingerbread house contest on display at the LaCosta Resort to see what competition looks like beyond our kitchen table.

 Hmmmm, are we ready for 2016?

You be the judge.