Life sized gingerbread house? Yes, it is!

The famous, historic (and 5 star) Broadmoor Hotel here in Colorado Springs annually creates an amazing gingerbread house to display in their main building during Christmastime. We weren't able to visit the hotel last year to see it, so we made sure to get there this year! (And now we only live 15 minutes away, so it was easy.) Jim was able to take a half day on Friday so that we could all go together. Next year maybe the two boys will be old enough so that we can go in the evening when it's dark to see all the Christmas lights on display around the grounds.

This is one of the original steam engines (circa 1890s) that travelled from the Hotel up to the summit of Pike's Peak. Now the train for this route is a diesel engine.

 And now... the gingerbread house!! The bakers and chefs at the Broadmoor planned and created every element of this house. Except for some of the candies, they even baked all the breads that were used for the walls and roof and trees and floor. Upwards of 100+ lbs of butter, 70+ lbs of eggs ... you get the idea.

For example the little evergreen trees outside the house are green-tinted baguettes dusted with sugar. The bricks are red ciabatta. The roof-line of the house is decorated with rolls. Jim was particularly drawn to the red & white pillars (jordan almonds and burnt peanuts, two of his favorite candies).

Just one of the many lovely seating areas in the hotel.

Of course we had to go to the small cafe and get a croissant afterwards. SO ridiculously flaky.

Pristine, cool old Cadillac owned by the hotel.

Another shot of the house

And, this takes us back a week or so, but naturally we have to end this post with a shot of grinning Mattias!