Christmas Eve Gingerbread houses and letters to Santa

One of our Christmas traditions is making gingerbread houses but this year I wanted to make the dough from scratch instead of buying a kit; something I have wanted to do for years. We made the dough yesterday so it was already to roll and cut out. As I made the house pieces (as I didn't have a pattern), the girls worked on the cookies.

Then into the oven everything went to bake... When it was cooled we put the house together with Royal Icing.

 And began covering it with candies.

 Then we decorated a couple cookies for Santa.

 The girls opened their Christmas Eve jammies (and yeah Sierra takes off her favourite shirt so I can wash it!!!).

 And got one pic infront of our gingerbread house...

 before we watched it collapse before our eyes :(

 I guess there was a reason the recipe was made for small houses...I just assumed if I doubled the recipe we could make one family house instead of small individual houses. Next year we will make small houses for a village or...buy a kit again!

Time to write Santa a letter...(such serious business) and hop into bed.

 Merry Christmas Santa...I hope you enjoy your treats.