Victorious!

Every year, our good friend Paige throws a fabulous graham-cracker house building party. Over the last couple of years, this has evolved into a competition. If you know anything about us (especially Joseph), you know that our competitive nature sleeps very close to the surface, so we've been trying to win for the last two years, to no avail.

2009:

{This was our first, at home, real gingerbread attempt...needless to say we retired from that medium}

 

{Much better! We redeemed ourself here, but lost to a castle that had two days and several boxes of work on it. We won in our own hearts, but vowed to return next year with our game-faces on}

 2010:

 {Even though Joseph was sick, he bravely helped to construct our cute little Cathedral (far left). However, our scope was far too small, and we lost to the totally awesome Noah's ark to the right}

2011: 

You better believe we pulled out all the stops this year. The idea didn't hit us until early that day, but it hit like a ton of bricks- something cute, something recognizable, something ambitious: The UP house!

 

We toiled for a couple of hours, at least a half an hour after others had finished. Competition was stiff- a golden gate bridge being attacked by godzilla, a huge manger scene, Snoopy's doghouse, Zero's doghouse, the UCR belltower- but this time, we took the trophy...which in this case means Target gift card.

Now we can retire in style.