Then, after a while, we needed some sort of fun diversion and I knew just the thing! We would decorate the gingerbread house his nana gave him! Oh visions of a Martha Stewart-esque, Sugar Plummed Gingerbread House filled my head! Wes was super excited, too, when he saw all the bags of candy that came with the kit :) I even got out the video camera becuase I just knew this would be a sweet Christmas memory to document :)
So, we get everything all set up and mix up the icing. Here we go :) First step, smooth icing all over the roof to look snowy. This took a little work and ended up looking great! Next step, criss-cross lines of icing on the roof and add little candies at all the intersections. Easy! No Problem, just pipe straight lines and let Wes add candies... For some reason, I was NOT prepared for how hard the icing would be! I think I gave myself a HUGE head start toward arthritis just pumping those lines! But, hey, the 1st half of the roof looked great and Wes loved sticking the candies in place. Then, I started working on the 2nd half of the roof... I had an even more difficult time pumping the icing out of its bag... THEN, with the camera still rolling, the icing tip popped right out of the bag and icing oozed out...
Ok, I didn't want to let that bother me... I paused the camera and went into action. I had to scoop out all the icing to put the tip back in... then I wrapped tape around it for good measure :) I corralled Wes and we went back to work. This time, however, it was extremely hard to get any icing to come out. A few moments later, the tip burst out AGAIN! I told Wes I might need a minute to figure out what to do next so he scampered off to his room. Hmmm... Next, I snipped out the corner of a gallon-size zip lock bag - Surely this would work :) It was then that I discovered WHY it had been so difficult to squeeze icing out before. The tip was full of solidified icing! No wonder it kept busting out! Ok, now that I have diagnosed the problem time to fix it! I cleaned it out and put it into the newly prepared gallon size bag. Here we go! The bag was a little unwieldy but I managed to pipe out about 2 lines before the seam busted! This time, the tip stayed right where it belonged, but icing oozed out the side of the bag... Great :(
By this time, an hour had passed and Wes could tell his mom was getting frustrated so he just kind of laid low. I cleaned out the tip and grabbed a quart-sized FREEZER bag... I knew those were pretty tough so I thought, "Ok, we're back in business!" I squeezed the icing from the broken bag into the new bag and away I went! The excitement was short-lived, however, when I discovered the icing was difficult to manage because it was all drying out... So naturally the tip dried out first and it popped out of the bag... AGAIN... Luckily, I was finally able to draw all the stripes on the roof before the bag malfunctioned... I needed a break from the icing bag so I grabbed a knife and looked for ways to decorate with the icing that had exploded out of the bag (before it, too, dried up) I was able to make a front door and a tree for the yard, but that was about all I could do without much precision involved....
:( Sooo... back to the drawing board... I added a little water, started a new bag and tried again. I don't even REMEMBER what happened to that bag, but when I had to move the icing for the 4th time I thought I'd try the original bag that came with the kit. It was all sticky and wrinkled up but it had also been the most manuverable. I rinsed it out and cleaned out the icing tip and filled the bag. Since the roof was complete, I only had to worry about decorating the outside of the house. I tried to draw a window, but the icing was too watery :( It dripped and slid and made my window area all mushy. I dried off the tip and tried again... This time, SUCCESS! Now, I admit it wasn't the most beautiful window but it did look like a window! I remembered that the kit's examples had little window boxes with flowers.... Surely I could do that, right? Well, I tried it and they came out looking pretty cute. I was all pleased with myself. I called Wes back in to see! He was impressed (and relieved that I wasn't fussing at the icing anymore) SO he helped me decorate the rest of the window and then we made a wreath and a walkway leading to the front door! By then the icing was drying up again and it was time to clean up the tip if I was going to decorate anymore. I thought about adding windows and decorations to the sides of the house, but quickly realized that we had done enough for one day. Wes was pleased with how it looked and, surprisingly enough, so was I.
I chatted with Wes about the house and we both agreed that next year nana might have to decorate the house instead of us! When we were finished cleaning up, I thought I could at least get the finished product on video and have Wes show it off.... And he did a great job... As I was about to turn it off he said the house had turned out great, "even though we were so frustrated.. all because of my nana!" oy! Ok, so my image of the Chrismtas memory to record and cherish forever didn't quite pan out... and our Snow Day turned out to be snow-less and rainy... The kitchen was a wreck and when I spotted myself in a mirror, there was icing in my hair...
All told, it was a very stressful 3 1/2 hours, but at least we do have a cute Gingerbread House to show for it....
