Gingerbread House Contest

Remember awhile back I said I was organizing a gingerbread house decorating contest?  It happened!  Once the turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes (which my brother-in-law approved, whew!), sweet potatoes, gravy, corn casserole, green bean casserole, rolls, applesauce and the kitchen sink! were finished, the game was (almost) over, cards were being played, I was given the okay to make the announcement:

First Annual Gingerbread House Decorating Contest to Commence!

(Full Disclosure: I borrowed all my ideas straight from this really cute blog: Six Sisters Stuff.)

I divided the 7 little boys (aged 5 and under) and the 22 adults into 7 teams by randomly drawing the adults' names out of a bag.  Sadly, we lost a few contestants to work, shopping, and a boyfriend's family Thanksgiving, so we condensed to 6.

I set the timer for 20 minutes and the teams went to work!

N's team created a church

C's team created a freestyle structure

V and M's team created a winter wonderland

L's team created...a house with a chimney

A's team created a manger scene

M's team lost two members to a boyfriend's family Thanksgiving dinner, then suffered a collapse at the 15 minute mark, so we are just proud that the finished product was standing when the bell rang!

Here are the rest of the close-ups:

Freestyle

Manger

Our church, hands down the best.  Just sayin"

Winning Winter Wonderland

The chimney

One thing I may have overlooked was the voting process....there may have been some shady undertakings happening there....because the winner just so happened to be the combined team, who had Uncle T on it (and he's not exactly known for playing fair:)

But it all worked out - it was also D's 18th birthday, so he accepted the prize: a bottle of sparkling apple cider.  Although his little nephews may have run off with it in the end.

Happy Thanksgiving!  More holiday weekend antics to come later!

Congratulations and Happy Birthday, D!