Icing disaster leads to happy hearts!

The girls of the newsroom got together the weekend after Thanksgiving for the construction of what would be the biggest, baddest gingerbread village in the history of edible art.

Nance, Angela, Stephanie, Laura, Brittany
(not pictured: Brandi, Priscilla, Michelle, Morgan & Nora)

We had grand plans for our "Frontier Fabulous!" town, which included a hotel, farmers' market, shoe store, martini bar, coffee shop and decked out town square.

But, we quickly learned, we are not aces of cake. Or gingerbread.

The icing which would have served as glue was nowhere near sticky enough. The soggy lasagna noodles did not make for a cute ruffly roof as intended, and weren't possible to paint. We also ran out of dough... and patience.

But we refused to give up. After five hours of fighting gravity (and discovering Sixlets and Twizzlers stuck to the most inappropriate of places) somehow, our frontier became fabulous.

The "Martini Barn"

"Farmer's Market"

"Frontier Fabulous!"

It didn't look like anything Cake Boss would have made, but gosh darn it, we were proud. And who cares that our coffee shop ended up in the trash and our hotel never made it past the blueprint stage?

What more does a Fabulous Frontier need than a farmers market, a shoe store, a bar and a Christmas tree? We thought we might have a shot at the $500 grand prize, which we considered using for an office Christmas party... until we showed up and one woman had constructed a perfectly-scaled Honey I Shrunk the Kids church, with stained glass windows and everything.

1st place!

But we DID win 1st Prize in the group category. (We were the only ones.) So, we all decided to use the $100 Downtown Dollars to adopt an Angel.

(picture of Angel's new outfit deleted... just in case)

Our angel is 12. Apparently the older kids are much less likely to be adopted, so we were more than happy to shop for a pre-teen. We went to Under One Roof, where we made it out with four really cute gifts, plus two things to give for Be a Santa to a Senior.

Giving is the BEST gift for Christmas!

Today was the last day to drop off Angel gifts, and Santa to a Senior is wrapping up (literally) on Tuesday. If you're still looking to give, KTAB Santa's Helpers is in real need. We have more children than before, and donations are coming in more slowly. If you'd like Santa to bring you a happy heart for Christmas, please consider!