Gingerbread House decorating, it's a Christmas tradition. I've actually done it every year, except one, since 2003. I think six years of an event means it counts as a tradition. This year, as we were back in Australia, I figured it was time to include the boys in on the tradition.

The boys were great. They were very patient while Andrew and I made the icing and the boys even helped with the sifting of the icing sugar. Leo thought that icing sugar was flour and yucky tasting before Andrew suggested that Leo taste it (I had gone along with the flour comment). After that we had a hard time keeping Leo out of the icing sugar.

Oscar loved the decorating bit of the gingerbread house process. He loved making patterns with the lollies and was keen to cover every single part of the house. I think we did a pretty good job.

Leo wasn't so keen on the decorating and was more interested in the eating. He soon lost interest when we stopped letting him eat the decorations. He did announce that he was going to eat some of the "cake" when we were done. Luckily we convinced him to wait at least until Daddy got home so that Oscar and Leo could show off their creation. (Then we put it out of sight and out of reach of Leo's very sweet tooth).



More photos on Flickr.

More Christmas Fun...

Lollies, sweets and candy...
For the past three years, one of my favourite Christmas events has been the Gingerbread House evening run by Heather's church. It is such a fun community event. Although I'm half a world away, I decided that this year I wasn't going to miss out on this event. Natalie and I put our heads together and sourced a couple of Gingerbread house kits. Natalie's came all the way from Canada and it's a typical North American mansion. Mine is from ASDA and is a classic European chalet (complete with Hansel and Gretel and a witch).

Natalie and I had a fun time decorating our Gingerbread Houses. Although there are no freckles, musk sticks, redskins or strawberry and creams decorations on our houses. The English really have no idea how to do tasty lollies.

Look out behiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiind yooooooooooooooooooooooou!
The last item on my Christmas in London to-do list was "See a Christmas pantomime". Yes, this Christmas really is all about my inner-child. So it was appropriate that our pantomime of choice was Peter Pan, a play about the boy who never grows up. Starring Sarah Jane Honeywell as Peter Pan (who!?!), Bobby Davro as Smee (who!?!) and (the reason we decided on Peter Pan) the Fonz as Captain Hook. I mean, Henry Winkler as Captain Hook.

Pantomimes are all about audience participation. The audience responds when an actor asks a question. The audience boos when the baddie comes on stage. Although I was a bit hesitant at first, I soon loosened up and joined in the fun. Even to the point of joining in the special audience participation section at the end of the panto. (It doesn't advance the story line at all; it's just there for the audience.) How could we resist though when Captain Smee, dressed in a big Kangaroo suit, made us all sing Tie Me Kangaroo Down. We were the only ones in the audience that were properly qualified to sing it. We sang loudly with the appropriate ocker accent.

The whole thing was just one big Helen De Paul dancing concert. The dancing and music were so very 80s with an Eye of the Tiger / Final Countdown medley at one point and a Queen finale. The Panto also borrowed heavily from other musicals. Consider Yourself (Oliver) and We Go Together (Grease) both made an appearance.

All in all, I had a really good time. I love punny humour and at the end of the evening my belly ached from laughing so hard. I'm definitely up for a panto at Christmas time next year. Although, I feel it would be twice as fun with a child in tow. I think next December it might be time for a "Holiday with Auntie Jess" in London. Just whack 'em on a plane, I'll meet them at the airport *G*.

Thanks to Heather for inviting us to this wonderful event. We had a great time! (photos)

1. Gather all the materials you'll require for making and decorating the house. Think about your colour scheme in advance and check that you have enough of everything. If you run out freckles, halfway through your freckle feature wall then your house will look silly!
   
   
2. Fill your piping bag (a snaplock bag in our case) with icing and snip off a corner of the bag. Do not fill the bag with too much icing because when you squeeze the piping bag, the icing will come out both ends of the bag.
   
   
3. When you find the icing coming out both ends of the bag, coating your hands and fingers, resist the temptation to lick the icing off your hands. Use a tissue to clean your hands or you'll go home at the end of the night feeling very ill.
   
   
4. Use the icing as glue, and stick the sides of your house together and then add the roof. Use pins to secure the house until the icing dries. Make sure you also use pins to secure the roof of the house. Otherwise, your roof will fall off while you're decorating the house. (yes! It happened to me.)
   
   
5. Decorate your house with lollies. I subscribe to a theory of "more is more!". A house covered in lollies not only looks good, but tastes great when you eventually eat it.
   
   
6. When you are satisfied with your decorations, lightly dust your house with icing sugar. The icing sugar represents snow. If you forget this step you can always say "my house is an Australian gingerbread house, it doesn't snow here at Christmas". No one will be any the wiser.
   
   
7. Remove the pins you've used to secure the house during the decorating stage. If you're worried about the house falling over, you can leave the pins in. However, do not forget to take the pins out before you eat it!
   
   
8. Wrap your house in cellophane and add a big bow.
   
   

Thanks Heather for once again inviting me to this fantastic event. Thanks also, for allowing my rowdy rabble of friends to come along too. (photos)

Last friday I accompanied Heather to a craft night organised by her church group. During the evening we constructed and decorated gingerbread houses. Luckily, we didn't have to cook the gingerbread. The template for the house was delivered precooked and precut. We just had to stick it together and adorn it with smarties, musk sticks, mint leaves and all sorts of yummy lollies.

Sounds simple doesn't it? Of course messy jessie still made an enormous mess while putting it all together. I'd never used a piping bag before and whenever I squeezed it the icing seemed to come out both ends. By the end of the evening I was feeling ill from licking icing off my hands and all the grazing I did on lollies meant for decorations.

I was quite pleased with my house! Well, until I saw some of the other creations. I found myself thinking "wow! what a great idea! I wish I'd thought of that". I took photos of all the good ideas for next year.

Now we just have to eat it! I'm sure we'll demolish it in one sitting. Thanks for a great evening Heather (photos).