Gingerbread House

Well there is nothing more 'Chirstmassy' than a gingerbread house. Especially when you are in a country that does not believe in Christmas, sweets, or ovens to bake cookies in! My very smart brother had the great idea to send us over a gingerbread package complete with all of the trimmings, as you can see. Fortunately for us and his pocketbook, Beth was coming over just before Christmas and could manage to fit it into her suitcase along with the other hoards of presents that were sent by loving people back in Canada. So Christmas day eve we sat down and created what is, in my opinion, the most stunning Christmas gingerbread house that I have ever seen. Take a look.
Thanks to Mom for teaching me how to make the icicles which complete the magical feeling of this candy wonderland.

When I took it to school the next day to be on display I was stared at in the streets like I was the Emperor in his new robes. If I would not have known better I would have thought that I was walking around naked with no shame. I suppose that when you have lived for 40 or 50 years in Korea extremely isolated from outside influence and surrounded by a thick, homogeneous culture that a white person and a candy house may look a little out of place. As you can guess the house did not last long at school as my students had never seen, heard of, or tasted gingerbread before. They were boondoggled and far from speechless. They ran around the lobby of the school going, "woo" and, "AHHH" and, "look-at-it-look-at-it-look-at-it" until the Korean teachers decided that it was not allowed to be on display any longer. At that point I brought it into my classroom and let the kids break it up and eat it (I was smart about it though for I did not teach that class in the next block!!) Once again thanks Dave and everyone else who made this great sugar-high possible.