{"id":9953,"date":"2010-11-28T23:52:11","date_gmt":"2010-11-29T04:52:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/?p=9953"},"modified":"2012-04-15T00:45:41","modified_gmt":"2012-04-15T04:45:41","slug":"gingerbread-house-party-2010","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/2010\/11\/28\/gingerbread-house-party-2010\/","title":{"rendered":"Gingerbread House Party 2010"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Rebecca, Alastair and the house he wants to get his little hands on!<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

The day after Thanksgiving,\u00c2\u00a0my\u00c2\u00a0precious daughter hosted her annual family gingerbread house party and what a party it was!<\/p>\n

Rebecca\u00c2\u00a0was especially excited about Cousin Robert’s hand-me-down John-John.\u00c2\u00a0 Smocked with gingerbread boys and candy canes, it\u00c2\u00a0 looked just as good on Alastair as it did two years ago on Robert.<\/p>\n

Like so many of the brother-sister outfits I have made for them, these garments were both ready-to-smock.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s very rewarding to see this outfit have a second life with my second grandson. Of course,\u00c2\u00a0Robert and Laurel\u00c2\u00a0have been raised in\u00c2\u00a0our family’s\u00c2\u00a0gingerbread tradition and made their first\u00c2\u00a0 houses that year.<\/p>\n

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Laurel and Robert, wearing the gingerbread John-John now worn by his little cousin Alastair<\/p><\/div>\n

Since\u00c2\u00a0my children were little, we’ve always made gingerbread houses for Christmas.\u00c2\u00a0 For\u00c2\u00a0several years, the\u00c2\u00a0PlayGroup Mamas gathered to make houses for the children, before they all left home.\u00c2\u00a0But that was before the handy kits with pre-baked walls and\u00c2\u00a0 roof panels, frosting mix and a generous supply of\u00c2\u00a0candies.\u00c2\u00a0Back then it\u00c2\u00a0was 3 day operation–one to bake and cool the panels, one to assemble the houses and let them dry, and one for decorating.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 We got together three\u00c2\u00a0different evenings to get our houses\u00c2\u00a0ready for Christmas.\u00c2\u00a0One year, someone commented that we worked as hard as a construction crew on our houses.<\/p>\n

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college junior Rebecca, wearing her gingerbread apron<\/p><\/div>\n

The next\u00c2\u00a0year I made PGM Construction Company aprons for everyone, including some of the PlayGroup Kids.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I love the PGM text font, a freebie called the Bonaparte alphabet.\u00c2\u00a0When I downloaded it, I couldn’t imagine where I would ever use it.\u00c2\u00a0 And then all of a sudden, it was\u00c2\u00a0perfect for my project.\u00c2\u00a0 Does that happen to you?<\/p>\n

But sadly, now this alphabet seems to be unavailable.\u00c2\u00a0 If anyone knows a site where this collection is offerred, I would love to hear about it.<\/p>\n

The gingerbread house design is from an\u00c2\u00a0early\u00c2\u00a0Bernina collection, Christmas #105.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>In\u00c2\u00a0one bottom corner is an ultrasuede gingerbread man applique’ with the owner’s name.<\/p>\n

One of my favorite features of the aprons is\u00c2\u00a0 the shadow scallop worked around the outer edges.<\/p>\n

The right swing of the needle stitches in the air.\u00c2\u00a0 In order to get good coverage and to reduce the enormous amount of time needed to cover all this yardage, I used 12 wt. thread.<\/p>\n

It covered beautifully with an elongated length, which reduced the total number of stitches needed.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Behind the chandelier is 89 year-old Ruby supervising her son's efforts.<\/p><\/div>\n

At her party, Rebecca and I wore our aprons, stained with years of memories.<\/p>\n

The kits are real time savers, with pre-baked walls and roof panels, frosting mix and a generous supply candies.\u00c2\u00a0 The roofs have scallops pressed in and even windows and doors scored for ease in decorating.<\/p>\n

After purchasing gingerbread house kits, available at JoAnn’s, Michael’s and other such places, Rebecca loaded up on additional candy “building materials.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Rebecca's finished house<\/p><\/div>\n

Thursday night, after overeating an incredibly delicious Thanksgiving dinner at the home of Rebecca’s in-laws, my daughter and I assembled\u00c2\u00a0eight houses.\u00c2\u00a0 They require several hours of drying time before they are stable enough for the pressure of the decorating process.<\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0She and\u00c2\u00a0 Harvey really know how to make a party seem effortless, though there is a lot of effort involved with a party like this. Early that morning, she\u00c2\u00a0protected the dining room rug with old sheets, the chairs with towels and the table with another old sheet.\u00c2\u00a0 The men\u00c2\u00a0picked up\u00c2\u00a0pizzas, wings and some other treats for our lunch while the women enjoyed\u00c2\u00a0Christmas music and all the decorations.<\/p>\n

But as soon lunch was over,\u00c2\u00a0the candy fun began\u00c2\u00a0and it was kickoff for the Alabama\/Auburn football game.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0The men hunkered down in front of the tv and alternately cheered and groaned as the game progressed.\u00c2\u00a0 At one point, we spotted Alastair nestled between his father and beloved Uncle Doug,\u00c2\u00a0slurping milk in his sippy cup.\u00c2\u00a0 It looked like he was\u00c2\u00a0chugging a beer with the guys, though they were all drinking Diet Coke and iced\u00c2\u00a0 tea.<\/p>\n

The finished houses were as fun and creative and varied as the builders.\u00c2\u00a0 Guests included\u00c2\u00a0a dear neighbor, Harvey’s two aunts, his mother, her husband, and his 89 year-old mother.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Ruby had planned to decorate a house, but at the last minute decided\u00c2\u00a0 that\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0she would rather supervise her son’s efforts.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Alan rose to the occasion and, like a little boy presenting his mother with a bouquet of fresh picked flowers from her own garden,\u00c2\u00a0surrendered his sugary abode.<\/p>\n

What a sweet day this was. It sometimes surprises me just how\u00c2\u00a0intertwines are my sewing projects and family activities.\u00c2\u00a0Now my gingerbread apron\u00c2\u00a0holds another year of stains and\u00c2\u00a0treasured memories.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rebecca, Alastair and the house he wants to get his little hands on! The day after Thanksgiving,\u00c2\u00a0my\u00c2\u00a0precious daughter hosted her annual family gingerbread house party and what a party it was! Rebecca\u00c2\u00a0was especially excited about Cousin Robert’s hand-me-down John-John.\u00c2\u00a0 Smocked … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":10054,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,22,4,8,43,18,32,17,27],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9953"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9953"}],"version-history":[{"count":69,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9953\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22217,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9953\/revisions\/22217"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}