It seemed to Ziva that an awful lot of the holidays in America meant that they would end up at Gibbs' kitchen table. Whether it was for creating something or eating, it always happened there. Today was no exception and apparently, they were going to do a little bit of both eating and decorating. Well, Ziva hoped there was going to be eating involved because this had to be one of her favourite flavours and she couldn't just have it tempting her.

The flavour being ginger. They were making gingerbread houses which actually sounded pretty interesting. And tasty. Then again, for Ziva, anything involving ginger was good in her books. Especially if she got to eat it. And it was sweet. She really hoped they got to eat it.

Making gingerbread houses made more sense to her than the carving of pumpkins did. It was basically cake decorating. With a lot more icing and sweets involved from the looks of things. Then again, the amounts of those things might have been down to Abby being more than a bit enthusiastic about all of this. There were an awful lot of icing pens in the middle of the table. Ziva hadn't been aware that they came in so many colours. And the sweets. Wow. The sweets. There were definitely too many there. There was no way they could fit onto all the gingerbread houses even if there were eight of them to decorate.

"Tony, stop eating the sweets!" Abby scolded.

"You got my favourites."

"They're for the houses!"

"You got like four packets of them!"

That was an understatement, most of the packets seemed to be some sort of gummy sweets.

"Hand them over!" Abby demanded, holding a hand out.

Tony pouted at her. "You can't surround us with all this sugary goodness and not expect us to eat some."

"Most people sneak pieces as their doing the decorating," McGee told him. "Not blatantly steal a whole bag."

"No one asked you, McGee."

"DiNozzo."

"Stopping eating if the candy, Boss," Tony said quickly, sneaking one last piece.

Gibbs just grunted on him and went back to work. Which was more like him unobtrusively staring at Jenny as he really hadn't done much to his gingerbread house. There were crossed candy canes on both sides of it and a line of icing around all the edges. Some gummy sweet around the door finished it off. Jenny was apparently more interesting to look at. Probably because she had icing on the corner of her lips, Ziva thought shrewdly.

Deciding not to give that thought any particular attention, Ziva made herself focus back on her masterpiece in front of her. If you could call a gingerbread house that none of them actually baked a masterpiece. It looked kind of nice, in a sweet way - both literally and figuratively. Hmm, chocolate drop would look good over there...

"Do you really need that much icing?" McGee complained.

Ziva looked up from her careful detailing of her tiles to see McGee roll his eyes at Tony. Why were those two always sat together despite always ending up getting on each other's nerves?

"McGee, you don't comment on another man's gingerbread house."

That got a snort from Ziva, of all the ridiculous things to come out of Tony's mouth...

"See! Ziva agrees with me!"

"Do not drag me into this."

She refused to get dragged into such a ridiculous argument. It was just silly. What did it matter how much icing a person used? Then she looked at Tony's. Ah, she saw McGee's point now. That was an awful lot of icing. Did Tony just take a ladle to the icing bowl and put it on the roof of his gingerbread house? Because that's what it looked like.

"That is an awful lot of icing," she agreed.

Tony gave her an injured look.

"It will turn out fantastic, just you wait."

Or it would end up collapsing under its own weight. Ziva was pretty sure there was more icing on it than there was gingerbread.

Oh well, it wasn't he problem. She was more preoccupied in making sure hers look like the image on the box.

"That looks lovely, Ziva," Ducky complimented.

Ziva looked down at her house and gave a small smile. All she had done was followed the etched-out lines in it. Nothing more than that. Though it did look quite pretty with her regimented gum drops along the edges.

"I enjoy cake decorating," she said with a shrug.

"Gingerbread isn't a cake," Tony pointed out.

She gave him a look, which made him flinch. "I know that but the concept is the same. Also, this doesn't seem to be bread either."

Definitely not a sort of bread Ziva had ever come across and she had experienced a lot of breads. From flatbreads to fluffy rolls, there were certainly a lot of bread options out there but nothing like this gingerbread.

"It has always been a type of biscuit in England," Ducky began. "Considered good to aid digestion and other medicinal properties. It was America that actually made it more cake or bread like with their use of the cheaper molasses instead of sugar. It makes a softer cake you see."

Huh, who would have thought that such a delicious treat would have so much history?

"And now we've basically gone back to cookie form," McGee said, holding a piece up and snapping it.

"Biscuit really but yes," Ducky agreed.

"Oh! Wow, Tony!" came Abby's gasp.

It drew everyone's attention to the Senior Field Agent as he proudly displayed his creation.

For all of McGee's derision on the amount of icing that had been used, it actually turned out well. Really well. It had actually semi hardened and Tony had etched swirly patterns into it very artistically. It gave the whole thing a very whimsical look. Candy laces outlined the windows and he had somehow managed to make the icing make icicles along the roof.

"How did you know how to do that?" Abby asked in amazement.

Tony shrugged in embarrassment. "My mom taught me."