This year, I somehow surmised that it would be a good idea for me and Kamryn to make a Gingerbread House for Christmas.

I’ve never made one before, and it seemed like a fun activity that could turn into an annual family holiday tradition.

Oh, and how I love traditions.

So yesterday, we broke out the store-bought kit that I bought a few weeks ago and got to work at the kitchen table.

The construction phase seemed to be going well, until I tried to get the House to fit into the plastic tray from the kit.

It didn’t work. And when I tried to push it…

the entire thing fell apart.

And the front and back of the Gingerbread house cracked into pieces.

From that point on, we weren’t working with just any gingerbread house.

We were building the Griswold Gingerbread House.

Ugh. Go figure. It looked so easy on the box.

The problems didn’t end there. Only a few minutes later, we suffered a fatality.

During the panic and chaos (and mild swearing) that occurred in the aftermath of the gingerbread house collapse, Kamryn accidentally dropped the house’s owner, Mr. Gingerbread Man.

Sadly, our cookie friend had to be discarded in the kitchen trash can.

May he rest in two delicious pieces at the bottom of a 13-gallon Hefty bag.

After all the tragedy, it seemed like there might not be any hope for our little house.

Until I decided to try using graham crackers as reinforcing structural supports.

That, combined with a little extra frosting to patch up the broken pieces…

And our (most likely to be deemed uninhabitable) gingerbread house was finally standing.

Once we decorated the thing, it actually didn’t turn out as horrible as I thought it would.

It was actually, dare I say it….

…kind of cute?

But because it isn’t exactly structurally sound, we hired someone to keep an eye on the place.

There’s something about having Batman on the job that makes us feel all warm and fuzzy.

I think the gingerbread house will be safe now until Sunday.

Unless the kids eat it before then.