Walk down Gingerbread Memory Lane

My mom always loved Christmas, and one of her favorite traditions was making Gingerbread houses. She would always make one for us, and one for another family. I haven't made one since I was pregnant with Isaac and lived in Wyoming near Stacie and Kimberly. I just never seemed to find the time to do it by myself. My sisters, however, have been faithful every year. This weekend we had planned to meet up at Kimberly's to make our houses. Of course, yesterday morning as I was cutting out my first house, Ashlyn threw up (seems to be the story of my life these last few months!) and my plans were cancelled. I almost just fed it to the kids, but then decided I should at least make one for my family. It has been too many years to attempt it for anyone else without someone there to guide me when I needed it. I'm glad I didn't! Compared to my mom's beautiful houses, it was a flop. My frosting was too soft and whole sides of my roof melted off, etc. I won't itemize all of the ways that I messed up, but I did hear a lot of "Oooh, that's no good" and "Looks like you messed that up" comments from Carter, who was my gingerbread house foreman. However, the experience wasn't a flop. I'm glad I did it, just for the walk down gingerbread memory lane.

As soon as I laid Ashlyn down for her nap, I turned on Mom's Christmas Mix, although I was really needing her Kenny Roger's Christmas, and got to work. As I decorated I thought about all of the years that I had watched my mom make these houses and how mad she would get when we would break off the icicles to eat. I thought about my very first gingerbread house that I made. When we went and delivered it to my cousin, Marsha, she said "Oh, this will be perfect for our Family Home Evening treat." You must understand, we make these for decoration and not for refreshment. My mom could barely drive home she was laughing so hard, tears were blurring her vision, at the expression on my face after all my hard work. (It's okay, Marsha, you didn't know!) I could hear my mom's laughter as my frosting was sliding off and remembered her words of comfort she would always give as she'd try and help me fix it (today wasn't the first time it has happened!). As I was baking my gingerbread I thought of my Grandma Holly and how we would always save the gingerbread scraps for her to come and get the next day. It was one of her favorite treats. And then, after Christmas, she would come and get the whole house to eat. That was something I could never fathom, as it had sat out on our table for a month. She would eat anything rather than let it go to waste, especially sweets!

I feel bad that Ashlyn is sick and I was sad to miss out on the sister gathering, but I really enjoyed my afternoon and it was great to share some of my memories with Carter and give him a piece of something that I enjoyed so much growing up.


However, Carter did swipe some of my lawn ornaments to put on his own gingerbread house that he had made at preschool. He wouldn't budge when I requested the nativity back to put on my house. "No, mom, because I know the true meaning of Christmas." You win some, you lose some. I couldn't take it after that.

Isaac was sad that he missed out, but I saved some gingerbread dough so that we can make some cookies and decorate them later. I'm looking forward to it.