STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

A 15-year-old Sage School student won first prize in Sun Valley Resort’s annual Gingerbread House Contest.

Brooke Vagias took first place for her “The Up House,” a gingerbread creation featuring a Victorian-style house with a hot air balloon emerging from the chimney. The balloon, made out of tiny marshmallows that she colored, emerged from a red licorice chimney. The windows were made of graham crackers, the fence post of Pirouline wafers and the roof, of Oreo cookies.

This marked the third time in three contests that Vagias has won a monetary award for the nonprofit oof her choice.

Brooke has always had a thing for “up,” said her mother Jenna Vagias, noting that Brooke’s first gingerbread house three years ago evoked Rapunzel’s tower climbing into the sky.

Sun Valley Resort is donating $3,000 to the Sage School where Brooke is a student.

Second place went to “Cozy Cabin in the Woods,” which garnered $2,000 for the Blaine County Education Foundation. Red hots provided ornamentation to the chocolate wafer siding, a trophy moose boasted pretzel antlers, and the large-scale production even had a cute marshmallow snowman with a powder blue scarf.

Inside the cabin, stockings hung on the rock candy fireplace, a yellow lab sat on an iced cookie blanket and packages were tied together with bows made of sprinkles.

Third place went to “Gingerbread Baseball,” aka “Graham Slam,” which nabbed $1,000 for Idaho Mavericks Baseball. The entry featured a graham cracker stadium with green marshmallow trees, candies on graham crackers representing the stadium lights and Gummi candies representing fans and baseball players.

Other houses included a Sun Valley Opera House built on behalf of Camp Rainbow Gold, Sun Valley Resort’s Roundhouse Restaurant and a Sawtooth Botanical Garden greenhouse built to spin so viewers could see all sides.