Gingerbread house event draws crowds to La Vista Public Library

With mountains of gummy bears, bottomless cups of icing and countless chocolates scattered among the tables at the La Vista Public Library, it's understandable that the children who were supposed to be making gingerbread houses were often a bit distracted — even before a fire alarm sounded halfway through the event.

The family event drew at least 70 children, parents and grandparents to the library on Saturday for the holiday family event to build little homes out of graham crackers and a variety of candies.

But most of the children's eyes seemed to be immediately drawn to the sugar and sweets available on each table.

For instance, Rodger Huberty watched his 2-year-old son, Greyson, debate whether each Twizzler and M&M would be better served as a siding or shingle to his gingerbread house — or in his mouth.

The father knew the answer; he'd caught his son brown-faced with chocolate.

"He's more concerned about eating them than putting it together," Huberty said, "as you can tell by his face and hands."

A couple tables away, Nate Pinter, 5, and his mother, Alison were tag-teaming a gingerbread house trimmed by white icing.

The allure of the candy, however, was too strong for Nate, who admitted that it was a sweet addition to have seemingly unlimited candy available for the taking.

"Candy — I get to take it home and eat it," he said.

Not all of the children, however, came for the candy. Those in attendance also got to take home a free book from the library, something nutritious for the mind amid the sweets.

Other kids constructed unique accents beyond the standard, boxy house, such as a sledding hill, Whomping Willow from the "Harry Potter" books and a zombie snowman chasing after gummy bears.

So even though a large percentage of the candy went to human consumption, some of the young attendees stayed true to the event's goal and built their own gingerbread houses.

« La Vista Sun

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