Not-So-White Christmas

This past Christmas was the first one A and I spent alone. We didn't travel to our families, and they didn't come to us. That sounds really sad. Let me explain. One of my sisters was working over the holiday on a cruise ship, the other spent it with her boyfriend's family, and my dad also worked over the holiday. Plus A had E.R. shifts right up until Christmas Eve and then the day after Christmas. So... yeah, we weren't going anywhere.

Since we were in Chicago for our first Christmas, I had my fingers crossed for snow. It would rock my socks to have the always-hoped-for white Christmas. Things looked promising as we had snow a week before, but then we moved into this strange weather pattern where temperatures are 20 degrees above normal. It all melted. :(

Not to worry - we still had a great holiday, even with Mother Nature withholding the fluffy white stuff. 

In college we started the tradition of building a gingerbread house during the holiday season, usually coinciding with Hanukkah. We would buy a kit at a store, then go crazy with the decorations. As last year we were traveling and the year before we were getting married and on our honeymoon, we haven't made a gingerbread house in a while. I decided to bring it back this year, but with a twist. 

We would bake our own gingerbread.

Yes, you heard right. I did some research (thank you internet), and found most people recommending amateur bakers not attempt gingerbread dough. I've been baking for quite some time, so figured I could handle it.

We started out by making a pattern for the house. Many ideas were sketched on a handy whiteboard, but then A had a breakthrough. Why would we go with a typical design? If we're going to make our own dough, we might as well go all out and make...

The Hancock building.

(If you look closely at the above sketch you can see where we have an issue later!)

Next step: Actually making and baking the pieces. Building gingerbread dough turned out to be the most difficult thing I've ever made. It is a "hot dough", meaning you roll it out while it's warm. When I first started mixing it, it was crumbly and refused to come together. I started to panic and scanned multiple comments on the recipe I was using. Thankfully the combination of additional water plus the microwave gave me something I could roll out. Crisis averted! A went to work cutting out the pieces using a pattern we made.

He also did a little free-styling for our backdrop.

The dough went into the oven, while we watched carefully. Would it burn? Fall into pieces? Once again we lucked out - it browned (only slightly - we didn't use true molasses) and was very solid!

Once we had all the pieces, I whipped up some frosting to glue them together. We lined up all the pieces. Or so we thought. See what's missing now? We forgot to make a roof piece! However, we were able to use some of the extras A baked for the backdrop to improvise.

We let the pieces sit for a few hours so the frosting could dry. Once that was solid, we went a little crazy with the decorations.

We attempted to reproduce with candy some of the trademark architecture on this famous Chicago skyscraper.

Much candy was used.

It turned out great! (Well, we like it.) A commented that we need to up our decorating skills as our building is comparable to work done by a kindergartner. 

We admired it some more. Then we ate it!

Just kidding! The thing about building gingerbread is it doesn't taste particularly good. And it's hard as a rock. It's better to appease your visual appetite.

Here's a closer look at the backdrop... we wanted to add a skyline, and also ended up using extra candy to construct a road.

And of course we added our initials!

Our gingerbread building was so well constructed it lasted three weeks! (Mostly because A couldn't bear to throw it out.)

Warning: This post now moves into Orion overload. If you have an aversion to cute dogs, stop reading now. :)

While we were decorating, Orion was observing from her usual position - lounging on the couch.

O is one lucky puppy... she received multiple holiday gifts! One she doesn't really like that much yet because it's a thinking toy. We like to give her things which force her to use her brain. We're so mean.

You put treats or food inside the plastic bottle, then your dog has to move it around to get it out. There's an opening at the top with a piece of rope that can move in and out.

She didn't know what to do with it at first.

Then she realized she could tug on the rope.

A was excited since he's always trying to get her to play tug-of-war!

She quickly abandoned that toy and moved on to one much more desirable - a peanut butter-flavored chewing bone from my parents. (Actually from my parents' cat, Barcardi.) Here's what we imagine she was thinking:

This smells amazing! Can I really have it? Really? All for me?

Which end do I start on? It's bigger than I am! Yum!

She loved that bone. Took her a long time to finish it, and she jumped up and down, spun round in circles and generally went crazy whenever we brought it out.

But by far her favorite present was another from us. A new dog bed! She hasn't had one since she was sick at the beginning of last year and we threw the old one in the trash. As soon as we gave it to her, she curled up in it and stayed there almost all day.

This is by far the most amusing way she sleeps in it.

Not entirely sure how that's comfortable, but if she's happy it's all good!

Hope you had a great holiday season!