They Don't Make Houses Like They Used To

The kids and I had some time alone today because Kara’s kids were with their dad and she was spending some time with her mom before picking up the kids. I wanted to find something to do with the kids and came across two bags of stuff their grandmother had sent home with them. They were Halloween things and I totally forgot about them. I had put them up on a shelf when the kids brought them home because I didn’t want the other two kids to feel bad about not having them. Since we were alone today it was time to do the activities.

One was a mesh bag with three small stenciled pumpkins, some paints and a brush. We gathered a couple more brushes and the kids got to paint their pumpkins. They came out looking great and are sitting on the front porch with the other pumpkins we gathered before the holiday. The second bag contained a gingerbread house kit with Halloween colored icing, one black and one orange; and Halloween candy: candy corns, black and orange jelly beans, pumpkin gumballs and sprinkles. I’d never built a gingerbread house before so this would be a challenge. I have to tell you, flipping the refrigerator and freezer doors was easier.

I was reading the directions on the back of the box and they said to pipe a little icing around the base of the included tray. That was easy enough. Then they said to lay out the pieces of the house and line the edges with icing. This was the first problem. The instructions said the icing should go around the inner edge of the pieces. I did that. Then, when I went to assemble the first two walls, the icing was not in the correct place to hold the pieces together. It should have gone around the perimeter of the pieces so when the corners touched the icing would stick them together. I got a butter knife and rearranged the icing so it was in place to do its job.

I had icing all over my fingers and was trying not to get it all over the walls, and I did a pretty good job. Then I put the first two walls together. They held. Then I rearranged the icing on the other two walls. When I went to put the third wall up I realized the tray that was included wasn’t big enough to hold all the pieces properly. It was just a little too short on each side and I had to really push the pieces together to make them fit. I thought they were going to break, but they didn’t. I still had icing all over my fingers though. It was as sticky as toothpaste and didn’t wipe off very easily with a rag. I was washing my hands constantly.

Once the house was assembled we had to wait 15 minutes for it to set before we could decorate it. So, we waited. These things are supposed to be fun, right? If you say so. After 15 minutes I called the kids back to decorate. That’s when I realized that our house would never look as cool as the one on the box. First of all, they didn’t give us enough orange icing to decorate with once we had all the walls to the house stuck together. The orange was the one it said to use for that purpose and it was, pretty much, gone by that point. We had a lot of black, though.

I outlined the windows, the door and the roof in the black, and put a few shingles on the roof, too. That’s when I noticed the orange that was holding the walls and roof together was “leaking” and falling to the tray. Not enough to make the house fall apart, but enough to cause a mess. I tried taking some on my finger and smearing it on the door, inside the black outline. Yea, that was the thing to do. Once it’s on your finger it’s not coming off again; not easily anyway. Then the icing on the edges of the roof began slipping off so we had to smear it on again.

I told the kids to grab a candy and start decorating – quickly. Zach chose the candy corn and put them in a line along the middle of the roof, then he stuck some on the icing shingles. Ty did the same with the pumpkin gumballs and Dolly put on the jelly beans. I asked Ty to run and get my camera so I could take a picture of our remedial creation, which didn’t look all that bad considering the instructions sucked and we didn’t have enough material to do it properly. Just as I was about to take a picture we noticed the candy corns on the top of the roof were disappearing into the house. The roof was ever-so-slightly sliding off the house. I’m guessing Zach pushed a little too hard when he put then on there and jarred the roof loose.

I sat down to take a picture and got one good one. Then I decided to turn on my flash to see if I could get a better one. That’s when the roof started really sliding. I pushed it back up and it stayed long enough for me to get one more shot. Then it was finished; it totally slid off the house. Just that one side, though; the rest of the house stayed together just fine. I’d already told the kids they could eat some of the house when we were finished building it, and a piece of roof was just fine. I took a knife and cut it into four pieces and we all enjoyed our creative treat. It was sticky, messy, and the kids had black lips from the icing; but it tasted great and we all had a blast working on it.

Maybe next time we’ll try a Christmas house. I’ll just make sure I buy extra supplies and that it’s completely dry before we decorate it. Whatever happens to it, though, the kids and I will get to spend some fun, quality time together; and our gingerbread house will taste great regardless of what it looks like when it’s done.

Until next time…peace to all.