Are you counting down yet?
Oh well, my kids are! They have been counting and marking the days before it's Christmas.
It's 12 days before Christmas and we do not really have any Christmas decors up in the house yet. I guess you have to put that on me, as I am not someone who goes really big in decorating the house and stuff like that. So to put the household in the mood, I decided to dedicate the next couple of weeks to some Christmas projects.
In my previous post I have asked for some Christmas-themed project suggestions from you fellow homeschoolers. There were very interesting and awesome recommendations, which we will definitely try.
I was still planning how to execute the project but my kids already saw the candies and got curious about what they were for. When I said we were going to make a "gingerbread house", they did not stop nagging me to begin with the project.
All right, this is no "gingerbread" house. I decided to skip the baking part because first, I have never tried it before, and second, the assembly part seemed tricky. Instead, I bought some graham crackers to substitute the gingerbread cookies.
In one of the homeschooling groups I follow on FB, a mom shared how they created their gingerbread house using confectioner's sugar and water as "glue". The other "glue" recipes called for meringue and since I do not have a hand mixer, I decided to try the sugar and water hack.
I made a thick paste of confectioner's sugar and also added some crushed graham crackers. Make sure to just add small drops of water at a time to avoid making a very thin solution. Assembling the houses needed lots of ingenuity and patience. The sugar syrup took long to try, but when it did, it proved to be sturdy.
We built three different gingerbread houses. The one at the right on the photo above is actually the smallest one. Little Miss started working on it, but stopped along the way because the pieces just "won't' stick together".
To make, first make a box using 2/3 part of the crackers. Cut two triangular shapes to serve as the frame of the roof. Use 2 pieces 2/3 part of the crackers for the roof.
When you can, I suggest making the bigger version (top left on the photo above) as it was easier to decorate later. The roof of the small one was too steep and when we had to put candies later, they would just slide off because the "glue" we used did not dry up fast.
The third "house" had a flat roof. Well, we ran out of crackers already as the Little Man kept on eating them as we went along. LOL.
To set the mood, Little Man put some cheery Christmas music at the background as we worked.
Now, it's time to put out some colorful candies and begin with the fun part!
There's no telling how much candies we were able to eat while doing this project. Stick to the house, stick in the mouth. Stick to the house, stick in the mouth. LOL.
Little Man and I decorated the biggest house. He loved putting the marshmallows on the roof, then he sprinkled some colorful candies on top too!
Little Miss took charge of the smallest house. She got challenged as the roof was steep and her candies kept sliding off. So she put some choco-wafers around her house and some panda biscuits that represented each member of our family. Of course, Santa is on the rooftop. :D
Kuya still maximized the flat-roofed house. He made smiley face on top of the roof, and marshmallow stairs at the sides.
We did not even notice the time passing by as we worked on our project. All of us had a grand time. It was our first time to try this activity and we definitely enjoyed every minute of it. Of course, we got challenged along the way, but where's the fun in it if it were to be very easy, right?
Needless to say, these gingerbread houses will not last until Christmas. We actually devoured them right after the "mandatory" photo-ops. 😁
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