Gingerly Carrying the Gingerbread House

Group carries gingerbread house to contest.

Bearing precious cargo are (from l) Sarah Puryear (postbac), Nadeene Riddick (IRTA), Ellen White (postbac) and fellows Fan Wu and Kenta Matsuda of NIAID’s Laboratory of Molecular Microbiology.

Photo: Maria Maslennikov

Gingerbread house with Minions.

NIAID’s Laboratory of Molecular Microbiology in Bldg. 4 made a house featuring many Minions.

Photo: Vanessa Hirsch, Maria Maslennikov

Winner of gingerbread house contest

First place winner in the paper balloting.

Photo: Vanessa Hirsch, Maria Maslennikov

The Simpsons, rendered in gingerbread.

A gingerbread Simpsons?

Photo: Vanessa Hirsch, Maria Maslennikov

3rd place gingerbread house

The third-place winner in the gingerbread contest

Photo: Vanessa Hirsch, Maria Maslennikov

Dr. Pacak's lab, in gingerbread

Dr. Karel Pacak's lab, rendered in gingerbread.

Photo: Vanessa Hirsch, Maria Maslennikov

With the sort of delicacy one associates with patient arrivals, gingerbread houses were delivered to the front door of the Clinical Center on the morning of Dec. 7, which was the start of NIH’s 12th annual Gingerbread House Decorating Contest.

Several creations were borne lovingly on wheeled aluminum gurneys, some of which were carried, to prevent vibrations from damaging the houses.

Visitors to the display were invited to vote for their favorite houses, either by paper ballot or on Facebook. The Foundation for the National Institutes of Health donated the gingerbread house kits. From there, imaginations soared.