Gingerbread Rouse

Gingerbread Rouse

By Ali Rouse Royster, 3rd Generation

At the risk of being labeled a Grinch or a Scrooge, I have a Christmas confession to make: Gingerbread houses are a pain in the rear. There. I said it. They never turn out as nicely as we think they will, and the time and effort it takes is nowhere near worth the resulting sloppy-looking, no-one-wants-to-eat-that-now candy cottage. Despite all this, my parents (God bless ’em) have taken on an annual gingerbread house-building afternoon with their six grandchildren, who, this year, are ages 5-10. They started with just two grandkids, and that was all well and good, but like the children, it has grown in both number and intensity. Each year, my mom proclaims that Kiki now has the secret to making gingerbread houses better and more smoothly. Once, it was buying supplemental candy to put out to snack on so that you wouldn’t eat all of your decorating candy. Then, there was the year that we made our own royal icing (10/10 do not recommend). My personal fave was the time I walked into my parents’ house the night before gingerbread house day to find my mom and dad all alone, hard at work pre-building the house structures so none of the kids would have to restrain themselves from touching the houses while they were drying. No matter the process change, the houses still turn out looking like elementary schoolchildren built and decorated them — which of course they did. But no matter what, the kiddos always look forward to their annual afternoon at Kiki and Papa’s to design the gingerbread house of their dreams!