The biggest challenge at The Home for Little Wanderers’ eighth annual Gingerbread House Decorating Competition, held at the Mandarin Oriental, was to get the candy onto the gingerbread houses before it could disappear down the little ones’ gullets.
The afternoon event, which raised money for the Big Wishes Gift Drive, paired local luminaries and celebrity chefs with philanthropic families in a tightly timed one-hour race to build the bitchin’est candy cottage, but some teams had an unfair leg up—namely, a professional pastry chef—whereas others were at a distinct disadvantage (in one particular instance, due to an impish 6-year-old named James Gordon). Regardless, it wasn’t about winning. It was about having a good time for a good cause while getting completely coated in frosting.
Front and center: Back Bay doyenne Maureen Hailer, her co-chair Kate Farrington, cookbook author Lauren Stein, statuesque brunette Julie Gordon, raven-haired beauty Aisha Al Riyami, latter-day Sally Field Marina Gross, veterinarian to the stars Deb Starr, the toothsome twosome of Sofia Ostrer and Wioletta Zywina, equestrienne filmmaker Christy Cashman, Mandarin pastry chef Rob Differ, Beacon Hill Bistro’s Daniel Gursha, broadcasting hunk Chris Shine, Lucky the Celtics’ Leprechaun, and lots and lots of mouth-breathing little monsters.
Once the winners were declared—and the kids were hopped up on sugar and bouncing off the walls—brunch was served, although more than one mummy sent her little ones home with the nanny and repaired downstairs for some much-needed Champagne at Bar Boulud.
“I don’t know how you do it,” marveled one childless attendee, to which the friend responded, “Kids are nature’s birth control.”
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Gingerbread House Decorating Competition
By Jonathan Soroff | Jan. 27, 2017
Blades of the Boston Bruins at the Gingerbread House Decorating Competition
Kimberly Bookman at the Gingerbread House Decorating Competition
Wally of the Red Sox with Erica McDermott at the Gingerbread House Decorating Competition
Chris Shine and Joan Wallace-Benjamin at the Gingerbread House Decorating Competition
Caitlyn Martin, Bailey Thomas, Ainsley Allen, Lucy Farrington, Georgia Barrett, Coco Roberts and Julia Scaparotti at the Gingerbread House Decorating Competition
Nicole Rhode with son Noah Bruno at the Gingerbread House Decorating Competition
Lucky the Celtics’ Leprechaun with Matthew Starr at the Gingerbread House Decorating Competition
The biggest challenge at The Home for Little Wanderers’ eighth annual Gingerbread House Decorating Competition, held at the Mandarin Oriental, was to get the candy onto the gingerbread houses before it could disappear down the little ones’ gullets.
The afternoon event, which raised money for the Big Wishes Gift Drive, paired local luminaries and celebrity chefs with philanthropic families in a tightly timed one-hour race to build the bitchin’est candy cottage, but some teams had an unfair leg up—namely, a professional pastry chef—whereas others were at a distinct disadvantage (in one particular instance, due to an impish 6-year-old named James Gordon). Regardless, it wasn’t about winning. It was about having a good time for a good cause while getting completely coated in frosting.
Front and center: Back Bay doyenne Maureen Hailer, her co-chair Kate Farrington, cookbook author Lauren Stein, statuesque brunette Julie Gordon, raven-haired beauty Aisha Al Riyami, latter-day Sally Field Marina Gross, veterinarian to the stars Deb Starr, the toothsome twosome of Sofia Ostrer and Wioletta Zywina, equestrienne filmmaker Christy Cashman, Mandarin pastry chef Rob Differ, Beacon Hill Bistro’s Daniel Gursha, broadcasting hunk Chris Shine, Lucky the Celtics’ Leprechaun, and lots and lots of mouth-breathing little monsters.
Once the winners were declared—and the kids were hopped up on sugar and bouncing off the walls—brunch was served, although more than one mummy sent her little ones home with the nanny and repaired downstairs for some much-needed Champagne at Bar Boulud.
“I don’t know how you do it,” marveled one childless attendee, to which the friend responded, “Kids are nature’s birth control.”
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