Gingerbread house 2011

Every year for the past...I don't know, nine years?  We've made a gingerbread house over winter break to take with us to see our extended family.  We use the same gingerbread recipe every year because it works well for construction and it also tastes pretty good, thankyouverymuch.  I probably made the first six or seven houses without so much as trying the gingerbread part of the house because I pretty much hate gingerbread anything.  But my sweet little sister talked me into trying it one year and then I ate half of the house by myself in the span of a few hours.  Did I mention how sweet my little sister is for talking me into that so I could quadruple my calorie intake during the gingerbread house festivities?  Anyway.

This year we crushed up candy canes to use in the windows (we didn't have any opaque candy, so the windows came out sort of a bright red.  This was ok, but an ivory color works much better...lesson learned).  I found Wilton Holly Mix Sprinkles and totally cheated by using them on the wreath hanging over the window on the front of the house.

Here is the house pre-candified:

...and the finished product:

 

And my niece, giving us the best review we got for the house once we delivered it and demolition began--