Gingerbread Village

If the blogger holiday festivities at Whole Foods weren’t enough, the very next night I headed north to a town called Wenham to meet some other North Shore/Massachusetts bloggers to judge some gorgeous gingerbread houses!

Wenham is a classic New England town, and the gingerbread house contest was hosted by the Wenham Museum.  The heading on their website says:

“How we have lived, worked, dressed, and played from the 17th century to today”

I think the first time I had been in Wenham was this past summer when my friend got married at the church right across the street from the Museum! 

Did you know there are hundreds…HUNDREDS of museums in Massachusetts?!  I didn’t!!  Luckily my company that night did more about that and it was so interesting listening to what they knew about museums in Massachusetts. 

So next time you complain there is nothing to do…stop, and go find a museum, I guarantee you won’t run out of things to do.

Anyways back to the task at hand…

First, we were greeted by a lovely little table full of snacks, many of which were “ginger” themed.

This carrot ginger soup from a new organic restaurant down the street was smooth and delicious.  I believe the restaurant is called Grassroots but I’m not 100% sure.

Cheese…of course I helped myself :)

Marcona Almonds

After some snacking and chatting with the ladies from The North Shore Dish and the husband & wife team from The Two Palaverers, we went in to begin judging.

This was going to be tough…

This was the 4th annual Gingerbread Contest and anyone from kids, to adults, to groups of kids, groups of adults, or anything in between!

It’s incredible what some people can do with gingerbread and icing.

 

This one is modeled after a farm near by…I wish you could see the detail better.  There are sliced almonds as pavers leading to the door, and brown sugar cubes as the bales of hay around the edges

There was a train riding around the table and the house on the right below had real lights inside!

After walking around many times and looking at them all over and over made my choices and the votes were tallied!

Winner #1 – I believe this was the mixed group category…they are bird houses!

Look at the little birdie inside…so cute!

adult group winner:  I believe we were told this was done by a group of teens that volunteer at the Museum so I’m happy they won!

Kids group!  This was SO freaking cute!  Like a castle with animals and so many colors…definitely dreamt up by young minds.

And the adult winner, my favorite and already pictured above…

now, we later learned this was done by a cake decorator (I guess that’s allowed ;)

It was also designed after her own house…that I am envious of.  I’d love to live in a house like this!  Even more so if it were made of delicious gingerbread…mmmm.

It was a fun holiday evening on the North Shore and now I want a cookie.

Goodnight!