Gingerbread House Competition, McGhie Style

Here we are at the McGhie's Second Annual Graham Cracker Gingerbread House Making Competition. This year, due to multiple scheduling conflicts with previous participants, some of the faces have changed, but the spirit of the competition remains the same... to kill and crush your opponents by making an all around superior creation. There is only one rule - everything on the thing must be edible. Oh... and there is a one hour time limit (which we sorta abandoned).
This year we were looking for revenge (since last year it was painfully obvious that we were beat out by more skilled, more creative and all around better graham contractors).

So, with the stakes high, and creative juices flowing, we set to work on our graham creations.

Disclaimer #1: Both of the other involved parties were first-timers, so cut them some slack.

Disclaimer #2: We have nothing against people living in trailers. In fact, some of our dearest friends from Provo lived in a trailer home. But as you'll see, this is no Provo trailer.... this is a good old fashion, southern redneck establishment, or at least that's what we were going for.

So, here are the results (and you can click on any of the images for bigger, more detailed versions):

Submission #1 by Sheldon and Nicole Martin - Frosty the Snowman's Mountain Retreat

Submission #2 by Rock and Whitney Permann - The Town Hall (aka the mall)

Submission #3 by Us- The Redneck Christmas Cottage

Anyways, the gauntlet has been thrown out and Sheldon has assured us they will be holding family graham cracker house building practice sessions once a month in preparation for next Christmas' competition. We say, bring it on.

So, I've included a few close up shots of our creation for anyone who is interested in taking a gander. And just to add to the spirit of the creation, all the forthcoming descriptions will be in the language you'd expect from one describing this:

This hyar is th' Driveway View. This hyar shot cappures th' essence of our li'l cottage, in a trimenjus pitcher kinda thin'.

Fum this hyar shot, yo' sh'd be able t'pick out a few of our favo'ite features:

#1 - th' profile of th' mounted deer haid
#2 - th' Jedtmas lights haphazardly strung (year roun' by th' way)
#3 - th' lawnchairs laid out in front of th' campfire
#4 - sum beer bottles strewn about th' front yard
#5 - a few frogs loiterin' about th' propuhty

Next we haf our Campfire View. This hyar sh'd give yo' a bit mo'e of a closeup t'pick outta few of th' afo'e menshuned features thet come stan'ard wif this hyar li'l baby.

This hyar is whut we refer t'as th' Crown View. Our creashun is ado'ned wif a stuffed an' mounted deer haid. "Whuffo' ain't it inside," yo' ax? Wal, it obviously'dn't fit too fine, an' shucks, eff'n it were inside th' neighbo's'dn't be able t'see it.

... OK enough of that redneck talk...

And last we have the Rear View. Now, let me just tell you, while this was totally unintentional (Steff was working on the wreath and campfire on one side, while I was mounting the deer head), it made for some of the biggest laughs of the evening. Once all was said and done, it was brought to our attention that with the strategic position of the deer head and the red, circular wreath, it almost made the back of the trailer look like we were impersonating not only the head of the deer, but also the rear end. Funny, but we can't take credit for that. We were simply adding a little more Christmas cheer to the cottage.

Until next year...