a new tradition: homemade gingerbread houses

I had been seeing a lot of gingerbread houses all over instagram

and the blogosphere, especially these by Miss Mustard Seed.

So Miss C and I decided to give a try.

And here is the result of our first efforts:

Not too bad, but I am not going to give up my day job!

I made the big one and Miss C. made the little ones, and an army of snowmen.....

As I mentioned earlier this week,

during the tree reveal,

Lou was very interested in the houses!

She was even willing to stand still for pics,

just so she could keep her eyes on them...

They do look good under the tree lights,

but it is not a safe place for them!

Since Miss C. made a gingerbread dog house, (the one in the back) Lou will get to it on Christmas!

We followed this recipe from The Food Network, pretty easy and tasty, making the dough the night before, baking the part in the morning

and icing/glueing it together in the evening.

I used some cookie cutters that have some embossing, they hold their shapes very nicely. I also made an Eiffel tower, because....why not?

and some hearts that I thought we could use for decorations, but we ate them! They were just too good.
While it is a great new tradition to follow, the kids have mentioned that it cannot replace the traditional buche de Noel au chocolat:

Last year, I also tried the buche de Noel aux marrons, but I was the only one who really enjoyed it...

I will be busy making a few of the chocolate yule logs  pretty soon!
Happy day!