Gingerbread House Madness!!!

There are so many fun festivities this time of year! One of those that is now becoming a tradition at my family's home is a gingerbread decorating party. We make all of the gingerbread houses from scratch. This can be quite a process and can take a fair amount of time depending on how many we have to make. This year wasn't too bad. We ended up making 27 houses and out of those 25 survived and were worthy of being decorated.Here is how the week went with creating these lovely little gingerbread houses.

We started baking them on Wednesday. It only took a few hours to get them all (or most of them) rolled out, cut, and baked, but we ran out of one of the key ingredients and were unable to finish right then. Luckily, I had a swim that day and was already planning on going into town after we finished baking them. I didn't return home until about 9:30pm and we wanted to have all the houses baked and done so we could start setting them up the following day. Hence we didn't finish till about 11:00pm.

Now the real fun begins...putting them together. This part of the process has to be done in two steps. The first part is placing all the walls together with royal icing. And the key is to make sure the icing is not too runny or too thick, because in either case the walls will not stick together. After they are successfully place together you have to let them sit for a day to harden up. The following day, which would now be Friday, is time to put the roofs on. As we were putting them on most of the houses became complete with a few difficulties, such as sliding off. However, there were a couple houses that could not handle the weight of the roofs or they were too soft, therefore they collapsed! At least it was only two that did not survive (which is why we made sure to make a couple extras in case that was to happen!).

Saturday was now here and it was time to complete the gingerbread houses, which is to put them on a board and we always add an ice cream cone for a tree. We had four tables set up and each of them was covered with our cute little gingerbread houses. All we had left to do was make the icing for everyone and that is always easy. All you need is 3 ingredients and a mixer!

We also had a huge roaster full of stew and fresh baked bread for everyone to enjoy. Or perhaps to fill everyone up so they don't eat so much candy and make themselves sick! I must comment on our bread. My mom and I have been making bread for quite some time but the batch we made that night came out absolutely amazing!!! Usually we have left over bread but that certainly wasn't the case here. Everyone else must of thought it was amazing too since all five loaves were devoured!

All in all, our gingerbread house party went very well and was a lot of fun! It's always fun to see people's creativeness with decorating. Especially with young kids and adults. Here are some pictures. Enjoy!

How to find motivation!

Sometimes it is almost impossible to find motivation to get yourself out the door to do a workout. This was the case for me this last Sunday. I was to do a 1.5-2 hour bike ride followed by a 20 minute run. Usually I don't have a problem getting outside unless I'm really tired, which I guess may have been the reason this last weekend. Friday and Saturday my family and I spent all day moving furniture. I don't know if you've ever had to move furniture but it can be quite taxing. Plus, you end up getting sore, especially your back! The weather also wasn't very inviting. It was overcast and a bit misty with no signs of sun and around 48 degrees.

I actually don't mind having to run in weather I just described, I usually rather enjoy it. But I do have a hard time wanting to ride in this weather because usually the roads are wet and I'm always freezing when I start on my ride. However, I could've taken the option of riding indoors. But I did not want to have to do my long ride inside and deal with being absolutely bored and soaked in sweat! So since the weather was at least decent enough to ride in and not pouring, outside I went. I have actually been lucky enough that all my long rides as of yet I have been able to do outside, but there's still many more months of rain to come! So I'm sure I will end up inside for a few of them. Ok, enough of the excuses for me not wanting to go for my bike ride. The question is how did I find the motivation to finally get out and do it!?

Well, to be honest my family was a big help in pushing me to go do my ride. They kept saying I'll feel better once I do it or if I don't I will feel guilty (I had these same thoughts going through my head). And that is the truth! I'm sure if I had decided to take the day off I would have been fine (fitness wise) but would not have been psychologically. I did not want to have to deal with that so I finally got up and starting on the motions of putting on my bike shoes...helmet...glasses...gloves... etc. Now I was finally outside and ready to mount my bike and take off. As said earlier, I was rather cold as I started on my ride, but I knew I would get warmed up pretty fast because after a mile I had about a 1.4 mile hill climb.

I ended up finding another hill to climb later on in the ride. I had never ridden it before but am glad I did. I feel it made the ride worthwhile and fulfilling. Especially since it was tucked in a forest. Nature always makes me feel good and in a way rejuvenates me. I'm so glad I decided to ride outside and wasn't a pansy by riding indoors or just completely taking the day off.
However, since it took me so long to get going on my ride my run ended up being in the dark. I guess this will serve as a reminder for me that even if I don't feel like doing my workout I should try and find the motivation a little earlier in the day! Or maybe that will be my motivation :)  That is one thing I love about summer....the long days where it doesn't get dark until 9pm!