Saturday, December 13, 2008

Traditions are Had, Memories are Made!


When I was a little girl around Christmas my mom would drag my brother and I to a half dozen stores looking for just the right candies. Gum drops big and small, Necco candies, the right colored M&Ms, red hots, candy canes..... we would spend a whole day just buying candy, and what sounds like every kids dream, we would get home and she would not let us eat any of it.

Then the smell of gingerbread began. For days she would make sheets and sheets of gingerbread cut with precision! Days of gingerbread baking and the best part, the gingerbread scraps right from the often. Then the sounds of the mixer making tons and tons of frosting, the glue that holds it all together.

The construction began. House after house, a precious assembly line. the candy all lined up in separate bowls. As my brother and I would try to sneak candy... "Get out of there"! Some years she would make 25 or more gingerbread houses. Some as gifts, some to be sold. Mom would load up two and take them to our school classrooms. Our house usually took stage as the centerpiece of the table and we couldn't touch it till Christmas day.

Finally Christmas day would come and along with the gifts we finally could devour the gingerbread house and eat as much candy as we liked.

This has lasted as a childhood memory and this year it all came full circle. My mom decided to have a day of gingerbread houses. Again, she spent days picking out the right candies, made mini houses and larger ones. Each grandchild could decorate one and each child my sister-n-law and I each got to try our had at a larger one. Wow, what a mess, but oh what fun. The kids did a wonderful job, even started a new tradition with adding a fire pit! The kids loved it all so much they are even thinking of ideas for next year's houses.
This time she told the kids, "Have as much candy as you want"! Wow how times have changed from a mom to a Grandma (Oma).
The day ended in lots of hugs and one big sugar high!
Can't wait till next year.

Missy

2 comments:

Jennifer Paganelli said...

is this an old post..did I miss something?

Doris said...

Missy, we started doing gingerbread houses a few years ago, two of my siblings/spouses and their kids. Great fun! I live in Des Moines, but did contact Jenni who is West Branch about the Modern Quilt Guild (she's the one who set it up)