Gingerbread 2010

Hagia Sofia

(Aya Sofya)

Final Product

In keeping up with one of our very favorite traditions of recent years we again pulled out all the stops for a new gingerbread creation! We had a great time with our friends, and hopefully I'll get my act together sooner next year so that everyone else won't be out of town or busy already! It was a terrific time though as usual and we had yummy soups and homemade bread bowls to top it off. I've decided it is definitely making time to do things like this that really help it to feel like the holidays, even when you are far from other loved ones. I was thinking possibly something of a little smaller scale, but Noah was really pushing for the Hagia Sophia and I gave in and said let's go for it! (next year though, I'm definitely pushing for something with less pieces to bake!)

C &B working on their creation...seriously, they are pros! She is so amazing at all sorts of decorating....you should have seen her snowman cupcakes the following night!

Noah is our designated builder, then he does some basic decorating and I finish off with the details.

Our friends finished product! I thought it turned out so awesome, and they even did the candy class windows with halls cough drops! L.O.V.E it!

And no, normally there is not a star on the top, or Christmas trees in the courtyard (imagine what it could have been decorated like back when it was a Christian church:) Ronan INSISTED on the star on the top!

Us with the finished product, although I look very tired I decided! hmm, maybe that's because I was.....

And last, but definitely not least was Porter's very own creation! He really wanted to do a pyramid all by himself. I free handed the dough, and let it cook too long (sorry buddy) but he didn't care. We let him go at it, and he loved doing it all on his own. If you will notice the right side has hyrogliphics and a fish pond, and the left side has a water slide going down the corner into the Nile river along the base! What a goof....He learned about the Nile from the Backyardigans. So anyway, we thought he did a pretty good job for his first very own creation.

Merry Christmas, and to everyone else who can make it next year, get your ideas ready!

A special note to Art and Steph too, WE MISSED YOU!! Wish we could be together for gingerbread every year. We were together in spirit!