Adventures with the Gingerbread Man

Posted on December 7, 2009 11:07 AM MST by Tiffany Kinerson

My youngest son’s first grade class had a hilarious geography lesson last week. The class worked hard to decorate a gingerbread man in their class, but before the cooks in the cafeteria could get that guy in the oven, why, the little man ran away! The kids couldn’t believe it when they heard the story. They drew up reward posters and even canvassed their friends and family via e-mail and phone calls to see if anyone had seen the fleeting cookie. Sure enough, stories began pouring in from all over the country.

I love our fun-loving friends and family. They make my heart sing! They promptly replied to us, telling tales of cookie crumb trails up to Blackjack tables in Las Vegas and mountaintops in Colorado. Apparently, the gingerbread man sang Ricky Martin as he lived “La Vida Loca” just south of the Texas border, and he even strolled down the Christmas market, complete with a powdered sugar mustache in Malmo, Sweden. I tell you, that guy, he got around. Made me feel like a bit of a slug—and I’m made of real, live muscle and skin. He must’ve gotten his energy from all the sugar in his system.

Anyway, each time my boys got a new story of the cookie man's dough-ventures, they yelled and laughed. “There he is again! That’s proof! Proof that he really ran away!” Then they trotted off to live in the rest of their Christmas dream land complete with presents under the tree and unfinished letters to a magical Santa who shall descend down our otherwise unused Texas chimney in a couple of weeks.

Stories. Belief. This is what makes life fun. And it’s also what makes life cope-able. But is this all there is to faith? Stories to make us feel good? In A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (to see another excerpt from this book, click on "Good Reads"), the grandmother tells Katie, a new mother, that Katie’s children must believe in fairies, Santa, and all kinds of imaginary things at least until they are 6 because this will help the children when life is too difficult to bear. It will give them a place in their minds where things are always magical and fun. I like that thought. That is good. And I do lay credence to that idea. The whole reason I began to write again was because I needed to dodge the empty stressors of life when my husband deployed, leaving me with two tiny kids to bring up. My fabricated world kept me sane, reaching, thinking, growing, and most of all (any stay at home mom with little-bitties could probably appreciate this one) intelligent. I had grown up conversations in my head without looking like a crazy person. Not bad.

But this is all imaginary stuff. How does any of this equate to a real, living and breathing faith? Is there a connection there? Next time I blog, I’ll explore more about faith and stories. But for now, I’m on a search for a gingerbread man with Skittle buttons and shoes, Sweet-Tart hair, and Runts facial features. Has he shown up in your neck of the woods? If so, I know it’ll be tempting, but please DON’T EAT HIM! Matthew's class would be so disappointed.

Eat these instead

Best Gingerbread recipe on the block

1 cup butter, 1 cup brown sugar, 1 cup molasses, 5 cups of flour, 1 tsp. ground ginger, 1/2 tsp. cinnamon, 1/4 tsp. nutmeg, 1/2 tsp. cloves, 1/2 tsp. salt, 1 tsp. baking soda, dash or two black pepper

Cream butter and sugar, add molasses. Sift the dry ingredients together, then add into the creamed mixture a little at a time. Refrigerate if you'd like to stiffen. Then roll out, cut and bake at 350 for about 15 mins--that is if you can catch your cookies before they run off. Makes a ton of crunchy gingerbread cookies. If you like softer cookies, add an egg.

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