Guest post by Josh Latham, creator or MyVeganCookbook.com
Hi, my name is Josh Latham. I run a vegan recipe website called My Vegan Cookbook. My twin brother and I became vegetarian at age 11. We were both pretty finicky eaters before this decision. I always thought that meat was gross and sort of pushed it around my plate. But there was one incident in particular that really changed me. My mom had me help her prepare a chicken for dinner. She wanted me to pull the skin off the chicken for her while she chopped vegetables. I took a knife and started to trim the skin but my hands froze. I was suddenly struck with the realization that this used to be a living and breathing creature. I studied the chicken and felt a deep sadness and empathy for him. It was then and there that I woke up. I could no longer deny what meat was. Along the way, I had a few set backs to becoming vegetarian, and my mom thought I was just going through a phase, but after a year she realized she was going to have to start cooking vegetarian meals or else it would just get tossed out. It wasn't until I read The China Study in 2006 that I realized I wasn't doing myself or animals any favors by drinking cow's milk, and eating cheese and eggs. And so I began the year long, slow transition to complete vegan.

I was excited to be invited as a guest blogger on this blog because I am a kid at heart. My wheels started turning immediately as to what special gingerbread house I could create that would appeal to kids and young adults. I love all things geek, gingerbread and Kawaii, so I decided to combine all three. And so was born the Geek Boy Gingerbread House!
His eyes are open wide inside his thick glasses. The expression on his mouth is agape and his arms are flailing. Looks like he got that special tech gadget that he asked Santa for! Geek boy's look is finished off with a plaid pattern on his roof and a red bow tie.
To make this gingerbread house you first need to read through my free Vegan Gingerbread Houses ebook. This will give you a better understanding of the materials and recipes needed to construct a gingerbread house. You will find all the basics here, as well as other designs for houses in case you want to choose another style. There's a house for everyone's taste (pun intended) in there!
Download the pattern and instructions for the Geek Boy Gingerbread House.
If making a real gingerbread house is too much work, you can make one out of paper. Download, print, color with markers or crayons, and assemble the model of the Geek Boy Gingerbread House here.
Note from RaisingVegKids.com
After finding Josh's website online, I knew instantly that I had to make one of his gingerbread houses with my daughter, Charlotte. The photos of the houses in his ebook are all beautiful so it was very hard to choose, but I finally decided on Granny's House because it was clean and classic. Charlotte is only 15 months old, so I naturally did the bulk of the work, but she had fun mixing the ingredients....

About half way into the decorating, Charlotte realized that you could actually eat the candy! So that was the end of that...

After we finished decorating (and eating) the house, Charlotte stepped up onto her chair and admired her masterpiece from afar! I think she was happy with how it turned out!
Josh's step-by-step directions and recipes were organized, and easy to follow. He worked hard and put many hours into this project, and it shows. So if you are looking for a gingerbread house to make for the holidays, look no further. It's all right here.
A BIG thank you to Josh for sharing his genius project and for helping to make the world a kinder place one gingerbread house at a time.