Gingerbreadppl Decorating!

On Sunday 12/20, some ppl came over for a holiday get-together and gingerbreadppl decorating!!!  Russ couldn't go b/c he had a boys thing he was at, but Haeli, Audrey, Anita, Jason & Henry all came!  Malcolm was able to attend via Skype!


The evening started with spiked eggnog (courtesy of Jason) and appetizers of herb focaccia bread and spinach and artichoke dip.  I made it and it was delish!!  Check it out:

I sort of forgot to take a picture of my spinach and artichoke dip when it came out of the oven.  So, here's what it looks like after we ate half of it:

While we were snacking, we decorated gingerbreadppl.  There were both boy and girl cookies and they were a serious pain in the butt to make!  I mean, I had to roll out the dough, cut each shape, re-roll the dough, cut each shape, re-roll and cut.  I thought it would only take me like 30 min to make, but it took me over an hour!!  Here's what they looked like after they came out of the oven:

That's Henry's thumb.  See the boy and the girl gingrebread cookie?  They turned out pretty cute, considering the effort that went into making them!

Now, here's all of us decorating... Henry:

Anita:

Jason:

Audrey:

Everyone was decorating on these little trays.  The thought of cleaning up little decorating sugars and sprinkles was not thrilling to me, so I tried to keep it as clean as possible.  hehe.

And now here's our final products:

These are Jason's.  He made one a ginger-couple:

These are mine.  The R one has a cast b/c his leg broke off and I "glued" it back on w/ icing:

Audrey's hula girl and ugly Christmas sweater man:

Another one I decorated:

After everyone was done decorating, we put them on a bed together!  Here is mine (on top), Jason's (on bottom) in a strait jacket:

From L to R (top row): Jason's are the first 2 and then mine

(bottom row):  Anita's and Audrey's

Then Anita and Jason made a ginger-snowflake:

After decorating, we watched some Sunday Night Football, Haeli came and decorated (I forgot to take pics of her cookies), and we just chatted for a bit.  Then came dinner...  yummy!

Henry brought beet salad:

Audrey made meat lasagna:

Anita brought a Farmers' Market veggie pizza:

We had a slight intermission to chat with Malcolm via Skype.  It's freeeee and if you need to video-chat or chat long-distance w/ someone, use Skype!  ;)  Haeli was a great laptop holder as we all chatted w/ Malcolm.  He told us all about the restaurant biz in Shanghai!

After talking to Malcolm, it was clear that we were all sooooo full, but we still had Haeli's dessert to eat! She made cake-balls and tiramisu.  I forgot to take pics of those too!  BUT Anita brought her camera and I'll share pics from her camera when I get them.  The dessert was delish!!  We also used the dessert to celebrate Jason's bday.  Jason's a December baby too!

And here's how many gingerbread cookies were left for Russ to decorate when he got home from his thing:

I think everyone had a great time (at least I hope they did)!!  Everything was sooo delish!  Even the gingerbreadppl tasted good!  hehe.  Merry almost Christmas and Happy Birthday Jason!!