7th Annual Gingerbread House Party

Well, another gingerbread house party has come and gone.  It was a great day spent with friends and family (both physical and church family).  I didn’t end up taking the “set up” pictures this year like I usually do.  Honestly, at this point, it’s a little repetitive.  We’ve been using the same basic set-up for years now.  And really, we have settled into the same crowd of people each year.  Still, it’s fun to see how they grow over the years.

By the time I was able to start taking pictures this year, the party was in full swing!

The boys’ table:

One fun development of living in Nashville is seeing the children of friends interact with each other.  For instance, Allie (daughter of a college friend) has a bit of a crush on Canon (son of a Summerville friend).  We parents giggled watching her stealthily make sure she got to sit beside him:

Well played, Allie.  Well played.

Most of the house-building took place in the family room:

I love seeing the individual builders at work:

Wyatt Sommesi was a newbie this year (above left), and he used a never-before-seen technique of lathering the icing on his hands like soap!

Hadessa and Kingston are old pros by now (and I love the shot of Caroline Joy in the background):

Leah, Maya, and Isaiah:

Audrey, Iris, and Trevi:

Genny, Wyndee and Kainyn, Jennie and Thomas, and Josh:

Courtney and Luke have been bonding lately.  I love it. 

And Tamyra does a great job every year of totally covering her gingerbread house.  Her houses are always a work of art!

One surprisingly good builder this year was Genny:

To be so young, she had amazing focus and coordination in building her house.

Josh was also a dedicated builder.  And Audrey brought this amazing gingerbread house cake.  It was so beautiful that nobody wanted to eat it! 

As always, we had a candy refill station:

Then, after all the kids were done with building, it was time for lunch:

This year, I added a crock pot of chili into the mix.  That, along with nachos, chicken tortilla soup, and pigs in a blanket was more than enough to feed the crowd.  Another new addition was Cowboy Caviar, a vegetarian topping for tortilla chips with black beans, avocadoes, white corn, and tomatoes.  It’s one of my favorite snacks.  There was also vegetables, pita bread, and hummus, plus apples and cream cheese dip.  And for dessert, brownies and Edwards’ pies.  (I’m writing this mostly to my future self when I start planning next year’s menu.)

The kids played for awhile after lunch.  At one point, I went in to Anna’s room to see Anna with my makeup bag, giving her friend, Lily, a makeover:

In the meantime, the boys were being silly in Luke’s room:

From my perspective, it seemed like a good time was had by all.  And lots of elaborate gingerbread houses were constructed:

We are thankful for another good year!

6th Annual Gingerbread House Party

Every year, our family throws a gingerbread house party, which is always a highlight of our Christmas season.  This year was no exception, but our party had some interesting differences from past years.  For one thing, I was a lot less stressed about it this year—to the point that I did absolutely no prep before Thanksgiving.  I think that was a first for me, but thankfully, it didn’t come back to bite me.  I guess by this time, I’ve done it enough to know what I need to do and when I need to do it.  Another difference was the lateness of the party.  We always have it the first Saturday after Thanksgiving, but this year, that Saturday was really late:  December 7.  Because of that, I think, there were a lot more conflicts this year, so it was a smaller crowd:  I counted 41 this year.  But that was okay because of the other major difference:  it was COLD.  Every single year that we’ve done the party, the weather has been such that the kids could play outside.  This year was the first year that everyone had to stay in.  So yeah—forty people in a house crammed with tables of gingerbread houses is a good amount:). 

But honestly, it didn’t feel crowded.  It felt perfect.  We had a great group of people, and everything went off without a hitch:

The set-up

Shout-out to my WONDERFUL husband, who makes my shenanigans possible!

SO glad the chandelier made the picture:).  Classy, classy!

THIS.  This was the highlight of the party.  Our friends, the Wilsons, just had their fourth baby, and he is beautiful and perfect.

Some playtime before the house-making fun.

And it begins!

Elijah and Ryan

Vivian

Cameron

Allie and Lily

Roman and Kalyb

Kainyn’s masterpiece

Anna’s finished product (and the wonderful Edinger family!)

Luke’s “painted” house

Allie, helping Lily fix her house after it fell.  They didn’t know each other before the party. 

Daniel

Wyndolee

Genny’s first gingerbread house!

Sweet Hadessa

Iris was our youngest house decorator.  She may have had a *bit* of help from her mama!

Trevy’s finished product.

Vivan and Tamyra, trying to beat Kainyn’s record for most candy on a house (they also did not know each other before the party.  It was cool how well all the kids got along!)

A few of our creations!  Once we had finished our houses, it was time for lunch!

And more playing!

Of course, the aftermath was a force to be reckoned with, but the house is almost back together now.  And besides, a little mess is totally worth the fun we have each year.  I’m so thankful to everyone who came and made houses with us!