Valentine Cookie Houses

Like many families, we've really enjoyed constructing gingerbread houses at Christmas. J and I actually started doing this even before we had any children, and it has been fun to continue it as a yearly tradition. One year, J went all out and constructed this castle (shown in the center of the photo and created from precisely cut and fitted graham cracker pieces):

Did I mention that was before we had children? :) These days, we usually serve more in an advisory capacity while our little ones do the constructing and decorating:

Well, several years ago, I noticed all the fun candy for sale around Valentine's Day and thought, "Wouldn't it be fun to decorate a Valentine house?" Guess what--it WAS!

I ended up making the houses out of sugar cookie dough for a couple of reasons: a) it tastes better than gingerbread and b) it seemed to go better with the feel of Valentine's Day somehow. I made a few different ones and gave them away to friends that year, but I never seemed to get around to doing it again.

Well, the other day I remembered that fun experience, and I decided to start a NEW tradition at our house. We're planning a get-together with friends this weekend to build some fun cookie houses. I'll be posting photos after that so you can see our creations.

A quick Google search showed that I'm not the only one to come up with the idea (see this one and this one, for example), but, I thought I'd share just in case this is something that never crossed your mind to do!