Croquembouche, or my culinary fail of the year.

Over Thanksgiving, I went up to my sister's place in the pacific northwest, where we part took of the noblest of all family traditions:  Christmas cookie making.   We do spritzes, bourbon balls, gingerbread, etc.  All the cookies we were raised making.  But this year I decided we have to do something else too.  Something different. You gotta try something new every once in a while, right? Something that looks appetizing in a magazine, like this:

(I apologize for all picture quality, they were ...