The Best Beginning of December Ever

I must confess that I usually have a little bit of the humbug thing. I love winter, cooking on the woodstove, stew and soup and baked beans, fresh bread, chili, getting outside for sledding, ice skating, and cross country skiing, and hibernating with knitting and reading. But Christmas... I like the lights and tree for, like, a week maybe. But not a month. And presents, that's the problem. With a tight budget and three kids, Christmas has for many years been the cause of unpleasant anxiety for me. Our adult relatives love hand-knit things and jars of canned goods for Christmas, but three little girls --even three whose worldview is tempered in a gentler way by virtue of not having television -- don't view wild grape jelly and wool hats as proper Christmas gifts.

But this year we suddenly found that the three little girls weren't little anymore. One's in college, the other two in high school. Asked what they wanted for Christmas, we heard,"gee, I don't know, nothing really. Maybe sheets."

And so Iturned my thoughts to how to make things festive this year. I started out by asking my youngest if she wanted to have friends over for a gingerbread house making party. And so December first found four young teens filling our kitchen for a full day of gingerbread house baking and making. Everybody brought some candy -- and of course we wound up with five times as much candy as one needs for gingerbread houses. The night before, I made three double batches of gingerbread house dough (the construction-grade recipe from the King Arthur Flour cookbook) and stuck it in the fridge. The kids plotted their cottage blueprints on stiff white paper, then set to rolling and baking.

Making four gingerbread houses is a lot of work. Heck, making ONE is a lot of work, and four is,well, four times as much work. But they did an amazing job.

There was one blunder, the same mistake I make every year: the mortar frosting is merely a 2 pound bag of confectioners sugar, six egg whites, and a teaspoon of cream of tartar. But, the first batch I make each year, I just beat until it's blended. This is about the consistency of white glue--and it'll hold.... eventually....though your arms may fall off waiting... No, you have to beat the mortar icing mixture for a looonnng time, until it becomes something akin to marshmallow Fluff. Then it holds instantly. This year, I made a Note-to-Self in the cookbook, so we'll see if I remember to read the note next year.

Getting ready for gingerbread house making was my excuse to clean the kitchen -- nice, as it really needed it. While buying supplies for the dough, I stocked up on extra brown sugar, molasses, cinnamon and other basics to prepare for cookie baking season. Then I sat back and listened to the kids as they finally set down, four hours of baking completed, and settled in to decorate their creations. There were long moments of quiet while they concentrated, long peaceful moments.

You know, one of them said, this is the best first of December ever.

Which really made me smile.