Gingerbread House Potluck

We hosted potluck on Thursday the 11th (the day that Elena was born!!!) and decorated gingerbread houses after supper. The meal was fabulous (stuffed pork loin, salad, baked potato casserole stuff, squash made with brown sugar and nuts, bread with homemade strawberry jam, and an amazing mocha cheesecake for dessert!) Yes, we were stuffed. I'm sure everyone really felt like being surrounded by candy, but they were great and jumped right in anyway.

This first picture has nothing to do with the rest of the post except it was taken that late afternoon...the moon was so pretty and nearly full.

The table/centerpiece for the meal

Here we go! Starting out on the houses...most people had their roofs done by this point. Katie was there working earlier, but had to feed Breanna. Greg probably just didn't want to be in the picture. Not sure where he was.

Working hard...they were all told that they could eat the candy, but not lick their fingers.

Fun was had, mess was made, candy was eaten, but the houses got done!

Here's some of the finished products:

Laura's house (her Christmas tree on the right was voted most fun decoration)

Brett's house (I don't think this is even the finished product...he definitely would win for the most candy on the house!)

Meg's house (I loved her front walkway with the licorice strips)

Aaron and Katie's house (I love the trees lining the front walkway)

Then, of course, some pictures of the artistes with their masterpieces:

Dale and Meg (sorry, Dale, we didn't get a close-up of your house...it was probably the most detailed one!)

Aaron and Katie

And then.....

Brett -- (for some reason we didn't get a picture of Laura and her house, either! Sorry!)

Bryce was picked up later and brought back. This is what he and Max thought of the houses. They were absolutely thrilled, as you can see. (In reality, it was past both of their bedtimes!)

Anyway, I think everyone had fun, and I'm so thankful they came to decorate. I'm sure it was more relaxing this year than it will be in the future. We had Katy come over to babysit Max and Breanna (Bryce was babysat somewhere else), but next year they will be old enough to know what 'candy' is!