I remember the elementary school days of the old graham cracker-milk carton gingerbread houses. Those were fun days. However, the past few years, my taste in gingerbread houses has risen to a new level. I have since been introduced to the life-size (for a gingerbread man), electric-lit, stained glass window gingerbread house. This has been a fun tradition our family has done over the years. Mom did the hard labor, preparing the real gingerbread house and stained glass lifesaver windows before we came. Dad did the electrical wiring so we could plug it in and have light coming from the inside. Once the whole family was together, the planning and decorating began.
Of course before we could decorate, we had to make the icing. The men did their part by warming the eggs for the special icing. Good work, men! 
Dad and I attacked the shingling of the roof together. Jared did shutters and windows. Mom did rooftop snow and decorations. Christy and Kevin did the Andes mint tree. And Evan...well, we all helped sample the building materials. In fact, our fence turned into a much shorter fence once we all realized how tasty chocolate-covered pretzels really are.
Over the course of a few days we would finish parts of the house only to find that it tempted us more to have such yummy treats on display. Here's a picture of the final product...minus a number of free samples taken by the construction crew.
What a wonderful tradition! Merry Christmas!
