Move over, Martha Stewart

I'm not sure what it is about Christmas, but I tend to turn into an old-fashioned girl when December rolls around. Cutting down a Christmas tree, pulling out ornaments from my childhood, making new ornaments every year. It's a strange sensation. This year though, I'm going a step further. I'm making a gingerbread house.

No, I don't mean I went out and bought a kit to make a generic gingerbread house. I'm really going to town on this. I found a site with quite a few patterns on it.

http://home.comcast.net/~frankysattic/index.html

First I saw the farmhouse and thought "Oh! How cute!" Then I scrolled down a bit more and saw a mansion and thought "WOO! That would be fun to decorate!" I scrolled down a bit more and then I found IT. The gingerbread house I was destined to build. A New England Saltbox.

So, that's what I've been working on since the weekend. I printed the template, transferred it to cardboard, made my dough, cut out the parts, even made an ice skating rink. I was going to start construction tonight, but my friend John (the PD from MO) had a stroke of genius last night. He suggested that I build an outhouse for the yard. You need to know my family to appreciate how utterly perfect an idea like that is. We're a twisted bunch. And I'm not much for "potty humor" but when the humor is the potty itself well, I guess I'm good with that. So, I did some research tonight. Found the dimensions for an outhouse. Scaled them down. And a little while later..VOILA! I have all the parts I need to build myself a gingerbread outhouse.

I'll be posting pictures as the project moves along. I'm looking forward to seeing how it all turns out. And I gotta say "thanks" to John...the outhouse idea really was pure genius!