House of Love = Genius!

Why didn't I think of this before??  Many people do gingerbread houses around Christmas time.  I had purchased a kit at the store with every good intention of putting it together with the girls over the holidays.  Matter of fact it's become sort of a tradition that we have my folks over for dinner to celebrate my mom's birthday and put together a gingerbread house, with both grandparents and grand kids working together to construct a tasty masterpiece .  Well not sure what exactly happened to the timing of things, but I remember gazing into the pantry a few days into January and thought, wait a second, I have a gingerbread house kit here, what the heck I am going to DO with it?  Well, I'll tell you, inspiration struck me in that very moment.  It was like a beam of golden light shown down upon me and a heavenly host of angels sang from above.

That's right, why not build a Valentine's gingerbread house?!!  Valentine's Day is the perfect holiday to construct a house made entirely of candy and frosting.  I was so excited.  I ran to the store to stock up on some of our favorite holiday themed goodies and treats.

I assembled the fine ingredients in a few bowls, tossed in a few left over candy canes, since they were the right color... gathered some of my favorite people and away we decorated!

We opted for using some left over canned frosting at our roof base.  This worked great because the royal icing they give you is really only enough for decorative touches, icicles, doorways, and the like.  This way we could slather the whole roof and lay the candy on thick.  Red hots make a lovely trim, don't you think?  We used the white royal icing afterwards to put the finishing touches on the roof lines and windows.

We went a little candy "crazy" but as you can see a good time was had by all!  Looks like we just started a new little family tradition.  You can buy a gingerbread house on clearance after the Christmas holidays and then just save it for Valentines day, to construct your own house of LOVE!