Gingerbread Houses Chihuly-Style

Cathi Hatch, Katie Laramore and baby Boden

Yesterday, my daughter, Katie Laramore along with her beautiful two-month old son, Boden, went to the Gingerbread House decorating party at the Chihuly Boathouse.  What a fun and festive scene!  There were chili bars featuring three different types of chili, focaccia bread, cheeses and crackers, fresh vegetables and fruit plus wine bars, beverage stations and egg nog bars.   

Katie Laramore and Boden in the Evelyn Room

The hot shop was in operation plus it was so much fun to see the huge number of gingerbread houses awaiting budding young gingerbread house decorating artists on both sides of the long log table in the Evelyn Room.  In addition to the houses, there were dozens of bowls of candy and frosting lined up and down the center of the table.  I saw about half of the candy making it into small mouths while the other half was attached to the houses with dollops of white frosting.

Leslie and Dale Chihuly were there to greet their guests and are the most gracious of hosts.  This year I was so relieved to see that the glass art on the niches on the window side in the Evelyn Room had been removed for the party.  It is such a crush of people that last year I was concerned that one of Dale's incredible glass art pieces was going to meet an untimely demise, but this year there were clean hand wipes for sticky frosting and candy fingers lined up down the sides instead.

Cathi Hatch and Leslie Chihuly

Little Boden is too young to enjoy decorating a gingerbread house, so we had fun watching other children, parents and grandparents hard at work decorating their houses.  We had a chance to connect with Betty Tong & Joe Miner and their two daughters, Audrey and Caroline, Kim Richter, Cynthia Stroum, Anne Phelps, Michelle Swerland who was there with her three sons, Detra Segar, Julie Skerrit who was there with her daughter, Eliza Flug & Chris Coburn and their daughter Lauren, Barbara Cahill, Nicole Vogel who was there with her daughter, Margery Aronson, Linda Nordstrom who was there with her daughter and granddaughter, plus artists Ginny Ruffner, Joey Kirkpatrick & Flora Mace, and the list goes on and on.

Katie with Boden fascinated with the Aquarium display.

Betty Tong with daughters, Audrey and Caroline

Katie and I had a wonderful time and even baby Boden seemed absolutely content with his first big holiday party.  I cannot imagine that there is a better gingerbread decorating party anywhere in the world that the one we attended yesterday at the Chihuly Boathouse!  Thank you Leslie & Dale!