Two years ago, we began a "tradition" of gingerbread houses. It began by Trevor's Kindergarten hosting a gingerbread house "party" that never happened due to our ice storm. We had purchased supplies for the event, so, looking for something to do during the ice storm, the boys and I began making gingerbread houses. (Well, I have used graham crackers and cake frosting to construct our houses, so they're technically, not "gingerbread" houses.) This year, I thought I would try the store-bought "kit". I was looking forward to the kit, hoping it would hold up better than the graham cracker houses, which usually collapse under the immense weight of the globbed on frosting and m&ms. :o) (On a side note, Trevor was upset that I bought the kit....he wanted to do the houses they way "we've always done them". I figured once he saw the great masterpiece that would be our gingerbread-kit-house, he'd forget about the "shacks" we used to make.) We planned on doing our gingerbread kit one night and as I opened the box and read the directions, I regretted not reading them earlier. It turns out, you are supposed to assemble the basic structure of the gingerbread house, with their "cement-like" frosting, and allow the house to dry for 15 minutes. It didn't help that we started this project at 7:45 in the evening....and the kids need to be in bed between 8 and 8:30pm. :o) So, I thought, what-the-heck, I'll assemble it, let it dry a little and we'll start decorating. Does it really NEED that long to dry anyway? Well, yes it does. We began to globb on some of the cement, uh, I mean frosting that came in the kit, and sure enough, the roof slowly began it's descent. There really was no disappointment from the boys as the house began to slide away. They were sneaking candy--the lovely, no-preservatives-at-all candy that comes in the gingerbread kit. By 8:15, we were done. I promised the boys we'd do the houses "like we always do" in a few days. The following week, we did pull our our graham crackers and frosting, m&ms and sprinkles and made our weak little "gingerbread" houses. It was messy and fun!! And it made for great memories!
The finished kit....quickly, before the roof slid off. 
The end of the kit house
Making the graham cracker houses
Sprinkling sprinkles
Hard at work.
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