Gingerbread houses create sweet holiday fun at senior center
Evans City resident Shirley Jones did not make gingerbread houses, either growing up or with her own children.
“A storm hit ours — a big storm,” Jones said joking about the gingerbread house. “The wind's too strong right now.”
Working with Jones was Mary Ann Adamson of Evans City who repaired the caved-in walls of their house with gobs of chocolate icing.
“I'm trying, but I don't know what I'm doing,” Adamson said, laughing about their first experience making the holiday craft.
Sweet notes of graham cracker and marshmallow, and the fresh aroma of peppermint candy canes filled the Evans City Senior Center as attendees built gingerbread houses last week for the holiday season.
This is the first time the seniors gathered at the center to make gingerbread houses, said Dorothy Weisberg, the center manager, who also created a candy structure of her own.
Evans City resident Bob Demask lined the roof of his gingerbread house with miniature marshmallows and colorful gumdrops.Although fun, the activity can be challenging, he said. Demask assembled his confectionery creation from a gingerbread house kit.Evans City resident Ella Mae Smith scraped vanilla icing onto the edges of crispy graham crackers to form walls.If the crackers were wood, the house would be finished, said Smith, adding she worked in a cabinet shop for 40 years.After her original walls toppled, she tried a new strategy and stuck iced pieces of cookie to support the walls.Demask and Smith suggested the activity to the senior center after they built gingerbread houses three years ago at the library, they said.Holidays mean joy, Demask said.
“It's a good time of year,” he said. “Sometimes people are happy, sometimes people are sad, sometimes something like this can take them out of a bad mood. It's nice being together with our friends at the center.”Patricia Woods piped green icing onto her frosted graham crackers to create windows and a door.Because it was her first time constructing a gingerbread house, she was ready to give up when her walls collapsed.“I'm a first-time failure,” Wood said as she picked up iced graham cracker pieces. “But, there's this saying — 'Try, try, try again.'”Despite the mishaps, the activity created holiday fun among friends, she said.“It's a difficult time for me because of the loss of my husband and lack of family participation,” she said. “It's thankful to be able to come to the senior center to make myself comfortable with my friends.”
