I almost can't believe myself: I am actually keeping the Christmas promise I made yesterday!
So, here are some more pictures of our Gingerbread houses (you can also see the full set here), from blank and bland to jummy and bling bling!

Here's "before". These are the Annas Pepparkakor set sold at IKEA, by the way. Nice and easy to assemble.. if you have a firm hand and are not too scared around hot, lava-like, melted sugar..

Here you can see some very serious bakers at work, with all the candies and cookies ready to be "glued" to their houses. The ideas and decorations were all their own, I was just on hand as the "frosting mama", piping wherever they ordered. By the way, I mad an awesome frosting this year! Easy to pipe, held its shape perfectly and. most important, though enough to hold in place even  the heaviest candy! Got the recipe from here, where you can also find loads of decorating ideas and tips.


And a couple of very tired but proud bakers at the end of all this work.. Apparently eating all that candy can be SO exahusting..




And they are right to be proud: look at these wonderful creations!

And next year... Tom and I are already thinking about a gingerbread castle...

I wish you all lovely holidays, with lots of rest and time and fun with your loved ones.
At least, that's what I hope to get!

PS
Tommaso says that my Gingerbread house is  VERY boring... And I kind of agree with him: his, Lorenzo's and Pietro's are much much more colorful and fun. I'll post them tomorrow, when the light is better. Christmas Promise!

.. and I'll write in english if I like it.

.. trying to restart a blog just before Christmas.
Sorry Internet, we'll try to do better.