Grandma Wheat and gingerbread houses

Grandma Wheat came down from Tacoma to visit us for Thanksgiving. It's always a treat for us when she can come down. The highlight for Judy is celebrating Black Friday with Sharon at all the big events. They've found some great deals over the years and bonded over snatching the last electronic gizmo from a slow mother-of-five shopper with sharp elbows (how's that for a tenderizing moment, Nick?) (Okay, I just made up that last part.) The highlight for the kids is decorating gingerbread houses.

This year, Judy decided that we'd save some money by making our own gingerbread instead of wimping out with those pre-made kits. This also let the kids let loose with their imagination. Taken as a whole, they turned out pretty good, if you don't try to psychoanalyze what it all might mean. And you need to realize that these were done mostly without input from Ethan.

This first house was designed by Grandma Wheat, Judy, and Kyle. It is your basic frame house with frosted-Sixlet tiles, gabled roof, Nerd-strewn path. In the front yard is a grill for barbecuing meat or smoking turkey. It all went fairly traditionally, until Kyle discovered the red frosting. Then a pine tree met an untimely death in the side yard. That is the traditional house.

Lia and Berrett's house was captured during a series of disturbing events. When they found that the Nicco Wafer didn't go as far as anticipated, they decided to simply burn the structure with cinnamon candies. Ethan decided that the roof was then a good place for the scorched gingerbread men.

Down below in the front yard, another mishap was occurring. The lumberjack didn't clear the area before chopping down the tree, and, oh, the horror!
And I think I'll leave it to Lia to explain what is happening behind the house during all this mayhem.

We may need to have a little talk.