Community living residents bring holiday season to life with gingerbread display

A gingerbread display is center stage in the gathering room at Osprey Heights Gracious Community Living center in Valrico.

TAMPA, Fla. - A gingerbread display is center stage in the gathering room at Osprey Heights Gracious Community Living center in Valrico.

A gingerbread display is center stage in the gathering room at Osprey Heights Gracious Community Living center in Valrico.

"My thought was we need something from Tampa Bay, and all I could think of was boat parade and ta-da, but I never could have imagined what the residents and the staff have come up with. It is just magnificent," resident Valerie McDarby said.

A gingerbread boat ride fleet, named the SS Rudolph by one resident, circles the center’s Christmas tree. Fitting of Tampa, they are led by a giant pirate ship.

A gingerbread display is center stage in the gathering room at Osprey Heights Gracious Community Living center in Valrico.

Every boat is decorated with various candies, chocolate and even chips.

"This is what I call the heart of the building. Everything kind of stems off from here," Osprey Heights Community Manager Jenni Emery said. "What we want everyone to get out of it is a great opportunity to have the biggest expression of internal creativity."

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Planning for the dazzling display began in September as residents and staff members all worked together to put it together.

New resident, Shielia Breighner, made a gingerbread house for the first time.

A gingerbread display is center stage in the gathering room at Osprey Heights Gracious Community Living center in Valrico.

"I thought that sounds like fun," Breighner said. "It really just fits around the tree, and everybody walks around it and enjoys it, and you can smell the gingerbread and all the icing, and it makes you hungry."

Breighner’s gingerbread house is part of a small village that anchors one of the ends of the circle. The hilly ground of the village is made from Rice Krispies, a snack that is also used to create the waves of the ocean.

"It just brings out all the joy of Christmas and all the joy of our community. We are a community. I know we live here, but we're a community of people. That's what's most important to me," McDarby said.

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