[second]

B and I weren't able to make a gingerbread house on Christmas, so we opted to make one for New Year's.  This was the second time I'd made a gingerbread house from scratch.   Although my first attempt eventually managed to stand on its own, I remember it always being on the verge of crumby collapse. 

Our house became a two day effort: We made the dough and baked the pieces on 1/1 and built the home 1/2.  B was the architect in the process and my role was supplier I suppose (providing the dough and frosting).  Basically, I was Home Depot.  Our first blueprint was a two-story home with a stained-glass window (made of melted sugar and food coloring) but it proved too ambitious with dough rolled too thinly.  We went to plan B: the common four-walled, slanted roof gingy home nailed together with confectioner's sugar and water. 

After we had cut out the pieces of our house, I was inclined to just throw away the rest of the dough. This prompted B to say our now commonly used exclamation, "What do we live in? The land of plenty?!!" We salvaged the dough to make a few miscellaneous shaped cookies and cut-outs of ourselves. Apparently, our gingerbread identities don't get a lot of sun.

Despite dough frustrations and tedious house decorating complications, our house creation was a success! It had a candy rock chimney, Andes mint door, candy cane windows, and the most lovely chocolate wafer shingled roof. All in all, it was awfully sweet :)