Monday, December 24, 2012

Gingerbread House Throwdown, Year Four

Once again, we had our annual Gingerbread House Throwdown, where Team Awesome (Max and I) fought tooth-and-nail against Team Hug It Out, Bitch (Sam and Jeff)...and while I'd say the end results were close, the houses were so different that there was no clear winner.  So that means that Max and I won, right? Either way, you can see the influence of Reddit in our creations.  By the way, Max and I were going to do a house under construction, but a key part of our design was pink cotton candy to use for insulation, and we could not find it anywhere (seriously, I swear I see it all over the place...except for when I actually NEED it), so we scrapped that idea for this year.

Here are our creations - first, Sam and Jeff:
The engineer in Sam was trying hard to figure out how to make the cuts necessary without compromising the structure of the house...while Jeff busied himself by cutting up black jelly beans.
Jeff carving a shape...
As soon as I saw this, I knew they were doing a cat - they kept denying it, and referred to the cut out shapes as "angel wings" but I knew better.
The big guns - er, drill - came out to attach the cat ears...
Aha!  I was right!  It's Tard, the grumpy cat from internet fame!
 Nailed it?

And now, here's the house Max and I made:
Max putting on the roof shingles.
 Since I took so many pictures of Jeff and Sam, I handed the camera to Jeff and asked him to get some shots of Max and I...this is what I saw when he handed the camera back to me.  Haha, Jeff...haha.
 
Teamwork in action...
...frosting cleanup?
Actually, the front of our house looks like Tard the Grumpy cat at this point!
Our finished house!  Complete with snow made out of marshmallow fluff and mini marshmallows, Christmas lights along the eaves, "lighted" windows (we used yellow decorating sugar) and we made our gumdrop trees tall by adding pretzel stick trunks.  Cute, right?
The Reddit-ish houses - Max and I noticed that the M&M's on the front of ours looks like an "upvote" arrow, and of course the Tard cat house. 

It's always fun to see how the houses turn out, plus the craziness that comes along with the decorating makes this tradition one that we all look forward to doing each year.  If you're curious, you can find the past throwdowns here - year one, year two, year three.

Merry Christmas!!!  For those of you who celebrate, I hope you have a wonderful day!

14 comments:

  1. I love love this holiday tradition.
    HAPPY HAPPY AND MERRY MERRY.

    xo

    ReplyDelete
  2. Merry Christmas Shelley! Wishing you and your family a wonderful holiday!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Well, obviously, you and Max won! Duh. That being said, I adore that they made that cat. Love that cat.

    Merry Christmas!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I look forward to this post every year. Of course you won. Merry Christmas!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Finally after 5 attempts it works.

    You won because you used more colors which I love.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I love how serious this competition is with the drills! I loves me some Tard, too, although the house looks more sad than grumpy :D

    Merry Christmas!!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Well first I had to go and look up Reddit and Tard.

    I love how you used marshmallow cream to make it look so snowy at your house. Hilarious that they had a computer there for inspiration, and I couldn't believe that you could actually use power tools on gingerbread!

    You won of course.

    ReplyDelete
  8. What an awesome tradition and the pictures are hilarious!

    Hoping you have a WONDERFUL holiday.

    --Crabby McSlacker

    ReplyDelete
  9. I love this tradition Shelley! But I have to say, I think Jeff and Ssm won!

    MERRY CHRISTMAS!

    ReplyDelete
  10. They're both great, but I think I prefer the one you and your daughter made- just looks a bit yummier with all the colorful candies. Merry Christmas!!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Such fun!!! I might start that with my boys. That is if we can find the gingerbread houses here in New Zealand. Thanks for the post.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Hi Shelley. OMG, LOVE LOVE this post, and your gingerbread house making tradition. BIG BIG happy holidays to your whole family! Hugs

    ReplyDelete
  13. My favorite Shelley family tradition, here again!! LOVE this year's throwdown, both in pics and in story. I hate to say it, but Jeff and Sam's Grumpy internet cat was very clever. If they had squared off the irises a little more in the eyes, they would have smoked you guys. But they were both terrific!

    ReplyDelete

Comments are now moderated to prevent spammers from leaving, well, spam - but rest assured that as soon as I read a real comment, I will publish it. So please, comment away, even though the blog is officially closed. Thanks!