When I was 9 or 10 years old and we were living in the Salt Lake City Valley my Mom decided to make a gingerbread house with one of her friends at Christmas time.  They built these beautiful houses after rolling out the dough and baking.  Then they decorated the houses with all sorts of candies.  At least that is what I remember.  After Christmas my brother and I tore into the house and ate it all up.  I think that I was told later, much later that my Mom glued it together with elmer's glue because the frosting wouldn't hold.  I'm not sure if that was true or not.  We ate it anyway and I don't remember it tasting funny.  We've tried the ginger bread house here at home with my kids.  My gingerbread doesn't work all that great and to get the kids to roll out the dough and wait for it to be cooked and cooled and have it fit together doesn't work so great.  My friend Marie has mentioned one year that Costco sells a gingerbread kit.  It comes put together - all you have to do is decorate it.  It comes with frosting and candies and even a pure sugar snowman.  So we've done that the last few years.  This year I bought the kit from Costco and then found one at Trader Joes so picked that up too.  When we opened the advent card about the gingerbread house Lona was so excited.  The boys not so much.  I figured the boys could work on one together since they don't stay focused on it too long.  Lona picked out the Costco house because it was preassembled and the Trader Joe one wasn't.  She looked at the box and came up with a plan and worked on it and worked on it and worked on it.  The boys are in the middle of construction.  They mixed up the frosting and put the pieces together.  Finally after the frosting because a thick pile of glue they were coherced into finishing their house. 

busted!